A Second Chance
by MustacheBuddiesXD
Summary: Tony Stark is a little alarmed when a rather beat up Norse god appears in Stark Tower. Why does he suddenly feel the need to help him, and why do people keep asking him all of these questions? Will eventually lead to Tony/Loki... COMPLETE
1. Godforsaken Muzzles

**I can say I am just another victim of the Loki feels, and it is quite serious... I kinda fell in love with the pairing that I am going to hopefully put in this fic, so please bear with me...**

Loki gasped when his eyes opened. It was as if a veil had just been removed from over his face and now he was seeing clearly for the first time in _weeks_. All of his unquenchable anger, and his horrid distaste for humans vanished, leaving a dull ache in its place. What had just happened?

He looked around at the rubble surrounding him on the floor and remembered the events that had taken place right before he had passed out. He had been flung around by that horrid green beast, and his magic had cut off his consciousness so that it could heal him properly.

He tried to sit up, but soreness had stiffened his bones. Healing magic like that took a lot out of a guy, even if he was a god. He remained in his crater in the middle of the penthouse of Stark tower, and it came to him just how finished he was. None of the paths that lie before him held any hope. Either the Chitauri would torture him until he begged for mercy, SHIELD captured him and put him in a fortified prison, or he was taken back to Asgard with Thor to receive some sort of horrid punishment there. It wasn't as if he completely regretted his plans, but they seemed so far-fetched and power-hungry now. Of course, SHIELD would never believe him if he told them that he had no interest in killing anybody anymore. He was just tired.

He sighed and allowed his gaze to wander to the shattered glass where he had launched Stark off of the tower. There had been an indiscernible flicker of guilt in the pit of his stomach when he had done this, and then the metal suit had flattened him and his had guilt vanished. Stark would survive and most likely beat him to a pulp in that iron suit.

Unfortunately the horrid beast had beaten Stark to it. Literally. Loki glanced through the shattered glass and out into the battle scene that he had started. Something caught his eye; a flash of gold and red. Stark was flying by quickly, and he was holding something rather large over his head. It was a _missile_. He flew straight up, and Loki guessed that he must be throwing it into the portal.

That genius… Loki grinned involuntarily. Now that he knew that the Chitauri would most likely lose, he didn't feel a need to think of himself on their side. He actually hoped that the missile would hit something of importance of theirs. Loki was a bit of an evil mastermind, but that did not mean that he chose to side with the other evil masterminds. And he had decided that he quite liked some of the humans; they were fun to use as pawns, and Midgard was an interesting place to spend one's time.

There was the slightest tremble of the ground, and Loki took this to mean that the bomb had gone off deep in the space of the portal. He looked outside and saw that all of the Chitauri's army was falling to the ground, dead. So the missile had hit the Chitauri mother ship, deactivating the soldiers that were linked to the main ship.

Loki vaguely wondered if Stark had gotten out of the portal, because surely he had flown in with the missile? And then there was the flash of something about human-sized falling from a great height. So the man of iron had made it out of the portal, but the rate at which he was falling suggested that he was either unconscious, had a dead suit, or was dead himself. He wondered whether or not the other Avengers were watching this and if they were going to save the falling billionaire.

Something large, green, and muscular plucked Stark out of the air. Stark was safe from death by falling, but who knew if he hadn't suffocated while he was in space, or maybe the beast would have a snack of him. Well, one couldn't spend all of their time thinking about whether or not one little measly human was dead or not. Even if that human seemed to be the one human immune to your powers, which really did interest Loki…

Loki reattempted to sit up, this time not hindered by his sore muscles, but by the fact that he couldn't quite dislodge himself from the broken stone flooring around him. He would've used his magic to help him out, but he had used that all up healing the many broken bones and cuts that the monster had caused him.

When he finally got out of the floor, which was some time later, he turned and found himself face-to-face with all of the Avengers, and they were looking rather angry and pointing various weapons at him. He sighed.

"If it's all the same to you, I'll take that drink now," he mumbled, a slightly sheepish smile camping on his face. If you were going to go, you might as well enjoy it.

He never got his drink.

XxX

Loki was currently stuck in a cell that was especially designed to keep him from using his magic to get away, and was sitting on the metal bed in the corner. They had left that stupid muzzle-device on him, and it was biting into his skin painfully. What did they think he was going to do, talk them to death? He was known for having a silver tongue, but to keep him gagged like this? It was inhumane, was what it was. They had decided to take him back to Asgard and give him a trial there, but he knew for sure that it wasn't going to be good. Death or life punishment was probably ahead of him.

Loki had bowed his head and went quietly, but they still had decided to but a godforsaken muzzle on him. They didn't want to take a chance on him talking his way out of his predicament. Loki felt a little honored that they thought he would actually be able to get away with that.

There was absolutely nothing in the small cell but the bed that he was sitting on. The walls were stone and gave off a coldness that chilled Loki to the bone, even though he happened to be a frost giant. He tugged slightly at his the bonds that were holding his wrists together, silently cursing his luck. Why had this happened to him? Why was he such a complete failure? He was a tossed aside monster who was raised with the gods to think that he was one of them, only to find out that he was not really wanted by anyone, not even the monsters that were his parents. And then he had gone and tried to take over Earth and failed. He was probably never going to taste freedom again, and there was even the chance that the he was going to be put to death.

Loki leaned back against the cold wall and closed his eyes, thinking back to his childhood when he had thought that he really was a brother to Thor. Loki wished that the innocence of being a child would come back and that he could just live that simple life again, with nobody telling him he wasn't worth it, no doubting his destiny. Of course, he knew that living in a shadow was not fun, being always second to the blonde god, but as kids he had always thought that someday he might be the one people gazed at in adoration. Oh, he wished that hope could come back. He knew that nobody would ever look at him in adoration after all he had done to the Earth. He had learned that killing people did not make you like them, it just made them dead.

A door fizzled into view on the far wall where a door hadn't been previously and Thor, still fully clad in his armor, walked in. His face was exceptionally grave, and that worried Loki. Something had happened, and Loki wasn't sure what.

"Brother," Thor choked out, moving slowly to stand beside the god of mischief.

Loki glanced up at him, raising an eyebrow. Thor reached down, pressed a finger to the muzzle, and it released its tight hold on his mouth and Thor pulled it away. Loki worked his jaw, which had become stiff with wearing that stupid thing. "What?" he rasped, his voice dry from not using it for so long, and he studied Thor's expression.

"Brother, I need your help," he began softly.

Both of Loki's eyebrows rose in questioning and suspicion. "What?"

There was a shout from outside the open door, and an explosion. Thor turned back to Loki urgently. "Asgard is being attacked by the surviving Chitauri, and I believe they are looking for you. Father and mother have fallen, and chaos is among us," he said, his voice cracking slightly.

Loki felt a fist of ice clench at his heart. The Chitauri had come for him, and he was most likely going to be tortured violently for as long as he would last. He wouldn't even admit it to himself, but he felt a pang of sorrow at the thought of his adoptive father and mother dying; mostly his mother. She had treated both Thor and Loki as equals, no matter what she knew Loki to be. He stood up. "I cannot be captured by them," he said evenly, hiding the utter fear coursing through him.

"Then you must help us rid this place of those awful creatures," Thor persisted. Another scream from outside. Another crash and brilliant flash of fire. Things were definitely going to hell here just like they had back on Earth. This time Loki was not to blame.

Loki held up his hands which were bound together by magic-binding cuffs. "I cannot do magic with these on. If you need my help, then you must remove them," he said smoothly.

Thor looked him in the eyes. "If I remove your bonds will you promise not to attack me or any of our people? Can I trust you, brother?"

Loki stared right back at his adoptive brother. "Yes." He actually wasn't lying this time; not really. And Loki knew that Thor really had no other options.

Thor touched the handcuffs which unlocked at his touch. They fell to the stone floor with a heavy clank. Thor nodded at Loki and turned around, headed to the door of the cell and out into the hallway, which a few Asgardians had fled into to get away from the onslaught of Chitauri.

As soon as Loki stepped out of the cell he teleported. He was not going to follow Thor to his imminent capture and doom. No, he was going to escape, and as soon as the Chitauri realized that he was not on Asgard anymore they would hopefully stop attacking. Hopefully.

Loki reappeared at the end of the Bifrost, which was still majorly broken. His next move relied on mostly luck, as jumping off this bridge could lead him anywhere. He could be sealing his doom and land right in the middle of the Chitauri, or something even more deadly. Last time he had ended up on Earth, which was what he was hoping to do now, a place where he could try to blend and hide from pesky Chitauri and Asgardians. And he really had nothing left to lose. His life was pretty much in shambles anyway. He took a deep breath, prayed to a deity that he didn't know, and stepped off into the void right as an explosion sounded right behind him. Something very, very hot and very, very heavy hit him in the back, causing his neck to jolt painfully and his skin to burn where his coat had ripped. He was unconscious by the time he was transported.

**Please review and tell me what you think so far. If you review I will post the next chapter, which I do have on my computer! If not you will be Loki'd!**


	2. A Crash in the Night

**Wowie zowie... Thanks to all of you guys who have alerted, favorited, or reviewed my story. I really hope that you like this next chapter and keep up on the reviews and all...**

Tony Stark hated himself at the moment. He really did. He had ruined all of it in one small little conversation, a few badly-spoken words. Pepper would probably never forgive him, and was probably even planning his murder right now. He sure deserved it.

They had been in a relationship that had been better than most of the ones that Tony had ever been in, but they had always been walking on thin ice. Tony knew that Pepper loved him, and he loved her too, but there was a hidden tension that never went away. Tony had mentioned Phil Coulson and really ruined the functioning parts of the relationship. It was the final straw, so to say. Pepper had really liked Agent Coulson, and Tony didn't blame her. He was a relatively cool guy and was really good at being an Agent in SHIELD. He cared for all of his friends, and worked hard to keep the Earth safe from evil, occult forces.

He had been drunk, he had been tired, and he had been stupid. He had accused Pepper of sleeping with Coulson, and that she had only stayed with Tony because Coulson had died. Tony blamed his extremely loose lips on the alcohol, but he knew that that was not a good excuse. Why had he been such an ass? Was there some kind of 'ass-ness' coded into his brain or something? Was it built in to the Tony Stark-system? Dear god, he needed some major help.

To keep his mind off of the failure of a guy he was, he currently was in his workshop in the tower in New York, working on improving his Iron Man suit even more. That was the one place where he was not a jerk. Iron Man was an idol, a hero, somebody that you could look up to and say, 'that is one great guy.' Tony Stark was not one such guy, and escaping into Iron Man was one of the only ways he could get away from Tony.

He was currently trying to figure out how to get his suit to keep him flying even when he had happened to have gotten knocked out. He would really like to not be a metal-flesh pancake instead of a superhero, like he had almost become when he had fallen after depositing the bomb into the portal. Programming the computer system to keep him flying wasn't that hard, it was the landing him safely that was giving him troubles. He did not want to end up in the side of a building either.

"JARVIS, do the calculations on landing horizontal in the suit and add in numbers for dead weight and impact injury susceptibility. And please start the coffee machine," he ordered his AI, rubbing his face with his hand. He spun his office chair away from the worktable and leaned back, sighing.

"Yes, sir," responded the AI in a smart British accent. Tony heard the coffee machine start brewing from across the room. It was nice having all the gadgets hooked up to one system so that all of them could be controlled by JARVIS.

Tony had almost nodded off in his chair when he heard a rather large crash from the top floor. He frowned. He contemplated putting on his suit to check it out, but decided that it was probably just a…what? What could possibly be harmless that had broken into the top floor of the skyscraper? He still set out for the floor above him suitless, ever the arrogant Stark.

The elevator doors opened, revealing a spotless, empty penthouse. Most of it had been repaired since the first Avengers battle, but they had decided to keep the divot in the floor where Hulk had embedded Loki in the stone just to have a laugh every once in a while. There wasn't anything important over in that side of the room anyway. Tony walked in slowly, searching the place for anything that could have crashed inside and not set off the extensive amount of alarms that had been installed.

And then he found a shelf of glassware that had fallen over. He grumbled and lifted the large shelf off of the floor, only to find that there was a god of mischief underneath, covered in debris and blood and burns. And he appeared unconscious. Yeah, not what Tony expected he would find underneath his glassware cabinet, and he found himself staring at the worse-for-wear Loki. Geez, the guy didn't look so murderous and insane when he was unconscious. Maybe he should stay like that more often.

Tony stared at the god on the floor for a few more seconds, and then got bored. He walked over to the sink, poured a glass of water, and walked back over to said god. He knew that this would probably cost him later, maybe even get him killed, but he decided to do it anyway. He poured the glass of water over Loki's head, ruining the awesome hairstyle, causing it to lay pasted to his head.

The god woke sputtering and looking around wildly, only to stop and glare at Tony. The glare somehow lacked the usual venom.

"So…this is where I landed," he croaked, closing his eyes again. "What are the odds?"

"Landed? I don't see a window shattered. How did you get in here?"

"The Bifrost is broken, so I used other means of transportation, which sends you wherever it chooses. It chose to send me here, right in the middle of your humble abode," responded Loki, his voice tired and his face not hiding his pain very well.

"Did you escape from your prison?" Tony asked urgently, already itching to get into his suit, even though the god in front of him seemed far from being able to attack.

"No, Thor released me as Asgard was being attacked by the Chitauri who were looking to capture me, and along the way they killed both Odin and his wife, along with who knows how many Asgardians. I thought that by removing myself from the equation I would divert their attention. They have no idea I am here, so I should be safe for some time," he explained, his voice hoarse.

"Thor should have let those horrid aliens have you, you deserve it," spat Tony.

Loki shook his head ever so slightly. "They think that I belong to them, forever to be their little puppet, a pawn they can use over and over again."

"A puppet?"

"Anger fuels anger. When they came to me to ask me if I would retrieve the tesseract and engage in a contract with them I was a little hesitant at first, but I spent enough time around them to start hungering for blood and revenge," he explained sighing. "It's amazing how being beat to a pulp by a giant green thing can make you want a little _less_ violence. Unfortunately, now that I have worked with them before, they think that they can keep me and continue to use me."

"Hmm…," Tony grumbled.

Loki tried to sit up and hissed in pain, his head resting back on the floor in defeat. "My magic is rather askew from that trip, I must wait for it to heal me," he said, almost to himself. Tony noticed that not only had the glass cut him, but there were odd cuts along the sides of his face and neck that looked like they were also burns. His coat was also ripped along the shoulders, and Tony guessed that there was a large burn on his back by the way the fabric was acting. He was paler than usual, and his face was drawn in pain. Who knew that gods could look like crap?

"Did something explode?" Tony asked, remembering the burning shrapnel that had burrowed into his own chest that fateful day.

Loki nodded. "Yes, the Chitauri were blowing things up, and the aftermath of one clipped me right before I jumped off the bridge," he said, wincing at the memory.

"At least you can heal yourself eventually. My explosion wound is still trying to kill me," Tony said, tapping the glow under his shirt in the chest area. "That's why I need this. Magnet keeps the metal out of my heart."

Loki looked interested. "Science versus magic; a very interesting topic. Wouldn't mind looking into that." He winced again, and Tony couldn't help but feel a little sympathy for the guy. He didn't seem at all dangerous right now, and he was bleeding all over his expensive floor that had just been repaired from the earlier damage that the god had inflicted. He sighed.

"You know, a guy who most recently killed lots of people and tried to take over the world should not expect to get help from the people he was trying to kill." Tony was still a little sore over the fact that the guy had thrown him out of the window, but he had survived. This guy had caused him a good amount of time he could have been spending to do more important things, though.

Loki didn't look angry, just tired. "I understand completely. If I was in your position I would not trust me either. I'm afraid I can't move to get out of your way, though." The look of dejection and loss on Loki's face had Tony rethinking his decision. He had never seen the god look so venerable, never seen the god without an expression of loathing or superiority on his face, and this was so different. "You may throw me out the window if you would like," Loki said, his voice twisting in bitterness and irony.

"You know what, today is your lucky day," Tony said, knowing that he would probably regret this decision later on when the god was trying to kill him, or when he was dead. "I'll help you out until you are healed, nothing more."

Loki looked relieved. "I am hoping that my magic does not take too long to replenish."

"Yeah, me too," Tony said, and he leaned down to see if he could help the injured god to his feet. He looped an arm around his shoulders and pulled him off the ground. Loki whimpered in pain when Tony's arm brushed the burn on his back. "Sorry," Tony grunted as he struggled with the weight of the tall immortal. Loki finally got his feet under him and was able to stand with only a little assistance. Tony walked him across the room and onto a bench that was off to one side.

"Here, sit down," he ordered, and Loki obliged, all but collapsing onto the bench. Tony examined the god's back. The fabric of his coat was ripped all over, and underneath there was blood and burns all over his back. His neck hadn't fared too well either.

"This is some pretty intense burning," Tony said softly as he looked closer at the wounds. "Does it hurt much?"

"Like fire," murmured Loki in his British-sounding accent. "And we gods of ice don't like fire much."

"What can I do that will make the healing go faster? Because there is no use in me treating you if you are just going to heal afterwards."

Loki thought about this. "Well, I suppose a change of clothes that are not shredded and covered in blood would be nice, and maybe a glass of water," Loki responded. "There is not much else that will speed up the healing, though I really wish there was as this burn is quite painful."

Tony nodded. He walked over to the sink and refilled the glass that he had used to douse Loki with cold water and returned to the god. "Here you go," he said, handing the glass over.

Loki took the glass thankfully and swallowed large gulps of the water. "The water you have here tastes much different than what we have back home," said Loki thoughtfully, wiping his mouth with his sleeve, and then cringed at his use of the word 'home.' He didn't have a true home.

"Wait here. I'll go get you a change of clothes, though you are a little taller than I am," Tony said, looking the Norse god up and down.

"Thank you," Loki whispered, and the words sounded quite foreign on his lips. Tony was rather surprised at this, but the god was good at trickery. He could still be in grave danger. Although, having that huge burn on his back would be a bit of a hindrance on the god if he wanted to attack.

Tony found a loose-fitting t-shirt and some sweats that were a little large on him. They would probably be too short on Loki, but they were better than nothing.

He came back into the main room to find Loki with his head in his hands, hunched over, and his shoulders slumped. If one didn't know that he had killed lots of people and almost took over the Earth one would feel great remorse for the disconsolate figure. Even Tony, who had been thrown out of the skyscraper by Loki, still felt sort of bad for him. He had had Thor tell the whole backstory of his insane brother to him, and it was a little tragic, as stories of supervillains went. This guy had only ever wanted to be loved and be equal to his adoptive brother, and the whole 'the world is mine' act could have been seen just as a cry for acceptance and care and attention that he had never received. What was this madness? Feeling bad for the murderer?

"Hey, here you go," Tony said quickly, trying to rid his mind of the wandering thoughts.

Loki quickly sat up and gratefully took the clothes. He stared at them for a few seconds.

"Oh," said Tony. "Just go over to that door over there. It's a bathroom. You can change."

"Yes," responded Loki, and he slowly walked over to the bathroom.

"Oh, and I would run some cool water over the burns while you're in there," Tony said as a last thought. "Should ease the pain a little bit." Loki nodded and closed the door.

Tony sat there for a few seconds, wondering what was actually going on. What were the odds that the god had just happened to land here? He could have landed anywhere in the universe, and he landed here, right before Tony had wanted to leave for California. There had to be something else afoot, some evil plan that was twisted enough to involve Loki getting injured to trick him. Only, something told him that this wasn't a trick, that the god really needed his help.

Tony walked over to the little kitchenette and poured himself a glass of wine. There was something odd about having a Norse god in your bathroom, even if you did happen to have met him before. Loki, evil mastermind, crazy, revengeful, had needed Tony's assistance. The murderous glances and condescending smiles that Loki was full of had gone away, leaving a somewhat broken appearance to him.

Loki came out a little bit later, and Tony had to hold back the laughter that threatened to bubble out of his throat. Somehow Tony had picked out the only deep v-neck t-shirt he owned , and it looked quite interesting on the god of chaos, especially when matched with a baggy pair of deep red exercise sweats that didn't quite reach his ankles, which still had the tall boots on them. His mouth was twisted in obvious distaste and embarrassment, and Tony couldn't help but chuckle at this.

"Is this what humans like to wear on a daily basis?" Loki asked, gesturing to his outfit.

"Not really, those are just the largest clothes that I could find," Tony answered, and was glad that the largest clothes that he could find looked so dang funny on the god.

Tony noticed that Loki's hair was not sopping wet anymore and its little flip had returned. He must have dried it off in the bathroom before he came out.

"How do the burns feel?" Tony asked him.

"Better after running water over them, thank you," he responded.

That was about when Pepper Potts decided to step out of the elevator.

**Please review! It doesn't take all that much time to press that little button right there and just type of few words. Let me know what you think so far!**


	3. Furious Fury

**Wow, two updates in one day... I am spoiling you guys. Hehehe... anyways, enjoy and review!**

"Tony?" Pepper asked, frozen in place staring at Tony and Loki who looked like they were having a nice little friendly chat, and they had been.

"JARVIS, come on now!" Tony grumbled at the AI which had somehow forgotten to alert him to the presence of Pepper in the tower.

"Sorry, boss, but Ms. Potts insisted upon me not counting her as a security breach," stated the ever-calm JARVIS.

"Tony… what?" was all that Pepper could manage to say.

"Oh yes, I, um, have a visitor," Tony said brightly.

Pepper seemed to take in the clothes that Loki was wearing and how beat up he looked. "What is going on?" she asked finally.

Tony decided he better explain quickly. "I was working downstairs and heard a crash from up here and decided I better take a look. I came up here and found him lying under a shelf full of broken glass and covered in burn marks for some reason. He was and is in no shape to attack me and he says his magic is depleted. He looked like he had been pressed with an iron with spikes, so I decided to give him a change of clothes and let him sit here until he is healed."

Pepper looked at him like he was crazy. "Tony, what is wrong with you? This guy killed tons of people and tried to take over the Earth. Why are you helping him? He could kill you right away!"

Loki decided to take it from there. "I assure you, I have no intentions of harming my savior. I am merely trying to go into hiding to get away from the Chitauri, who are looking to torture me into insanity, and I just ran into a kink in the plan, so to say."

"You escaped from your home planet, then?" Pepper asked.

"Not really, see, they were attacked by the Chitauri, who were looking for me, and I left so that they would no longer attack Asgard. Thor let me out. Right before I made it off the bridge I was hit with shrapnel from an explosion behind me. Knocked me out and burned my back up, and my magic got scrambled from the transportation, so I cannot heal myself at the moment.

Right as he finished saying that a few green sparks jumped from his fingers, and he looked at them in surprise. Soon all the cuts on his face were knitting together, along with, Tony assumed, the burns and cuts on his back. Loki's eyes closed and soon, instead of the odd outfit Tony had given him, he was in the usual suit that he sported when trying to blend in. He smiled.

"Ah, much better," he said, rubbing his neck and inspecting his clothing. He cut an impressive figure standing in the penthouse with the city lights in the distance.

"You're still not going to kill us, right?" Tony asked him.

"Of course not, that would be extremely counterproductive," he responded, smiling.

"Counterproductive?" Pepper asked, frowning in confusion.

"Never mind, that was supposed to be a joke, but obviously not a very good one."

Pepper still didn't look convinced. "Alright, Tony, I just came here to let you know that I am going back to California and that I am still mad at you, but I can see that you are busy, so I will just be leaving now." She turned on her heel and left quickly. Tony sincerely hoped that she would not call SHIELD on him, because Tony did not feel like explaining his decisions when he didn't even know why he had done them.

Tony exhaled once she had left the room. "You know, I am really tired of women altogether," he said, pinching the bridge of his nose. "They are just so….emotional and unstable."

Loki nodded absentmindedly. He really did look one hundred percent better now that he was back in his normal clothing and all the cuts were gone. He was still standing the same way that he had been before, his expression impassive and his body language very non-threatening. Tony wondered what would happen now.

"So, do you have a plan of action? Something you want to destroy or conquer? Going to another planet to kill everyone there?" Tony asked the Norse god, trying to start back up the conversation.

"Truth be told, I do not. I didn't really think this far ahead, as I was too busy trying to get out of Asgard. I guess I just want to blend in until the whole thing with the Chitauri blows over," Loki responded, shrugged slightly. "They cannot waste so much time on me, for their home is still in rambles from your missile. I give them about a month before they grow weary of me and move on to another victim."

"Sir, there seems to be a few angry SHIELD agents wanting to see you, and Nick Fury is with them," JARVIS chimed in calmly.

"Well, don't let them in," Tony responded. So, Pepper had called SHIELD on him. That had been really quick.

"Sir, this is now the Avengers headquarters building. They have full access."

"I did not tell you to grant them full access!" Tony said, surprised. "When did this happen?"

"Um, my records have been tampered with, it seems," JARVIS said, for once sounding confused.

At that moment Nick Fury arrived in the elevator, a deep frown planted on his face, a gun outstretched in his hand. A few other SHIELD members clad in the uniform spilled out from the elevator behind him, also holding large weapons that could have been guns that were pointed right at Loki, who was standing in the middle of the room looking as innocent as he could muster, although Tony could sense his unease at having so many guns pointed at him.

"Stark!" shouted Fury. "What is this about?"

"Um… We're getting ready for a dinner date?" Tony said, smiling innocently. He could feel Loki glaring daggers at the back of his neck.

"Stark, I'm warning you. You better start talking or I could arrest you for fraternizing with a known criminal." His voice was menacing and he looked ready to pull the trigger at any moment.

Loki stepped forward. The SHIELD agents almost jumped out of their skin and pointed their weapons at his head. Loki raised his hands. "I have no weapon, and I am not dressed in my battle armor. I do not wish to harm any of you, and if you will ease off a bit, I will explain everything," he said, his voice calm and reassuring.

They relaxed slightly, but still kept their weapons trained on his face. "Start talking," Fury growled.

Loki smiled. "Why do I feel like I have explained myself, like, three times by now? Oh, yes, because I have," he said, examining his fingernails in a way that was meant to infuriate Fury. And it did.

"Loki, I swear to-"

"Settle down, Fury, I will tell you, I am merely enjoying the outright anger that you seem so willing to show." Now that Loki had his magic back he was acting more and more like his usual self. It was a little alarming. He made to scratch his head, it appeared, but didn't get to, because one of the SHIELD agents, a younger man in thick-rimmed glasses, had gotten nervous and pulled the trigger of his gun. It was a Taser, and it hit Loki right in the chest. The Norse god crumpled to the ground, not being able to defend himself in time and falling unconscious….again.

XxX

Loki's head felt like it had been filled with spikes. He tried moving, but a spear of pain was sent rattling around his skull. He moaned.

"Why the hell did you have to tase him?" somebody shouted from above him. "He wasn't hurting anyone for once!"

"Stark, something fishy is going on here, and obviously you are blind to it. Or maybe you are assisting the god. We will find out, you know," answered another voice, a deeper one.

Loki opened his eyes and found that he was extremely dizzy. Being knocked out twice in so many hours can do that to you. He vaguely wondered how he had ended up unconscious on the floor, but then he remembered being hit with that odd weapon that the SHEILD agents had been holding. At first he had thought it was a normal human gun, but those had surprisingly little effect on him. This weapon had completely sent his senses haywire.

Stark was looking quite angry, and Fury was looking even more furious. Loki chuckled inwardly at this. Fury was furious at him? Maybe, but he couldn't actually remember doing anything to deserve being attacked.

"Ugh… Can somebody enlighten me as to the reason for my being incapacitated?" Loki groaned, attempting to get up. He finally managed to pull himself to his feet using a piece of furniture to lift his weight. He stood up, swaying slightly and holding his head to try to control the dizziness.

"Yeah, these guys are just trigger-happy, that's what it is," Tony said unhappily. Loki wondered why Stark was so mad that they had shot him. It wasn't as if they were friends or even on the same side, why did he care that Loki was knocked out by some of the agents on his own side?

"Hmm… well, I think I need to sit down," Loki mumbled and managed to sit tenderly on the bench that was near him. "What was that that you hit me with?"

"That, my friend, was a Taser. I hope you understand that we will not hold back on hitting you again if you misbehave. We now know that electric shock works quite well on gods," Fury threatened and Loki smiled weakly.

"I really had no intention of malice, and I still do not, even though some of you seem to enjoy it."

"Alright, mister nice guy, just tell us why you are here," Fury said.

Loki sighed and proceeded to explain what he had explained over and over again. Fury stood there silently, his face not showing any reaction to what he was hearing. When Loki finished he merely frowned deeper.

"So Thor is now the king of Asgard?" he eventually asked.

"Yes, Thor is king."

"And you escaped just to keep away from the Chitauri and to keep Asgard safe?"

"Pretty much, yes," Loki responded.

"Why don't I seem to believe that?" Fury asked.

"I really don't know, as I gave you a perfect reason for my actions. Why else would Stark have helped me other than my being so beat up that he couldn't do much else?"

"It's not Stark I question, it's your trickery. There must be a hidden plan here somewhere."

Loki shrugged. "If there is nothing I can do to make you waive your suspicions then do with me what you will," he said.

Fury seemed to think about this. "I probably should speak with the council first, but I believe that this is urgent enough to act right away. We are going to put you in our custody."

Stark appeared to be thinking something through. "Hey, wait a minute. If Thor released Loki before Loki left then doesn't that mean that Loki is legally free? I mean, Thor is the king of Asgard and all," he said.

"But we are not acting under Asgardian law," Fury responded. "He broke enough of our laws that we can punish him as we wish."

"Yes, but his punishment for breaking our rules was to be seen to by the people of Asgard, and they saw to it. Now that that punishment is complete we cannot re-punish him for those acts." Stark was being very insistent and Loki was really wondering why.

"Stark, if I didn't know better I would say that you want Loki to go free. Why is this?" Fury asked, voicing aloud Loki's own questions.

Stark seemed to be drawn up short. "Well, um, civil liberties for all? I guess…" Stark said lamely.

"Well, since you actually have a point in your reasoning, we cannot actually hold Loki in captivity legally, but we must keep a very close eye on him," Fury said, and then smiled. "I just got the best idea. We will not be keeping him captive; rather, you are offering him lodging here so that he will always be in our sight."

Stark just stood there slightly open-mouthed. "Wait, none of the other Avengers live here, so why am I the one that has to stay and babysit?"

"Because you were the one that pointed out that we cannot lock him up."

Loki just looked between them with a look of mild interest on his face. This might actually turn out to be an adventure anyway, and Loki had been worried that he would never have the freedom for another adventure. Living the life of a Midgardian could be worth it, just to see what they did with their time. And he really had nowhere else to go. When Stark had asked him what his plans were he had drawn a blank and was suddenly very, very lost. Now that there was somewhere for him to stay, and things for him to learn, he felt suddenly better. He also wanted to look into that thing that was in Stark's chest and the science behind it, because Loki really was a learner at heart. He liked to know the mechanics behind things, especially if that thing was impervious to his magic.

"Ugh, I don't like pets," Stark groaned, and Loki glared at him halfheartedly.

Fury had a smile on his face that said that he would enjoy this. "We will be back in a few hours with some tracking devices among other things. Don't let him kill you before then," Fury said, and with that he left, the other SHIELD agents following close behind him. Loki vaguely wondered who he had been talking to.

**Please review... Please... Tell me how I am doing. TELL ME!**


	4. Lucky Charms

**Sorry if this chapter is a bit of a filler, but you know, sometimes those have to happen in order to get to the good stuff... Enjoy and please review!**

Fury stopped by later that night with some cameras that were to be placed in the room that Loki was going to be sleeping in, and some more security measures that would ensure that the god didn't destroy or kill anyone. He also clamped a tracking device on to Loki's wrist, telling him that if it was damaged in any way a bomb inside of it would go off immediately, killing the god before he could get his way out of it. He left, glaring back at Tony and Loki with a menace that neither of them really wanted to dare.

After Fury was gone, Tony decided that a tour was in order. If Loki was going to be staying there, he might as well know where the bathrooms and bedrooms were. The top four floors of Stark Tower were the living quarters. It had been renovated to have enough room for all of the Avengers when they were fighting a villain together, with room for more people if needed. Tony decided to put Loki in the room that was closer to his, just in case Loki was planning something and Tony happened to be listening. There was the chance that being close to Loki's room was bad and that the god would kill him in his sleep, but Tony didn't always act cautiously.

"Here are your quarters," Tony said with a flourish, imitating Loki's accent.

Loki frowned at him and moved into the room. It was one of the larger ones, and it had a beautiful view of the city beneath it, which he paused to look out at before peering around the rest of the room and then at the adjoining bathroom. "You humans may be quite different from us, but you do have a good sense of how bedrooms should look," Loki said softly.

"Good to know," responded Tony, suddenly wanting to get away from Loki as quickly as he could. "Um, well, it is late and all, and I need my beauty sleep. Please don't destroy too many things, and feel free to walk around if you want food or whatever. Just please stay out of my lab and my bedroom. JARVIS will set off the alarm if you decide to not listen to that rule," Tony said, and turned around to leave.

"Thank you for everything you have done for me today, Stark," Loki whispered from behind him, and Tony paused at the door.

"I think I may just be crazy, but you're welcome anyways," Tony replied, walking to his bedroom as quickly as he could. There was a weird feeling in the pit of his stomach, and he thought it had something to do with the god that he had just left the presence of. Either that or insanity. Or both.

Before Tony went to bed he decided to use his portable computer device to do some Norse mythology research. If there was going to be a Norse god living with him, he really wanted to know more about him and the ways he could kill if he wanted to.

Tony found the stuff that he read quite frightening for many reasons, and he was sure going to question Loki about all of this in the morning. Geez was mythology odd.

After Tony felt he had learned enough, he shut down the device and climbed into his bed. He fell asleep wondering what he had gotten himself into, and what in the world he felt about it all. There was something undeniably warm and fuzzy about knowing that you had somebody out there that was similar to you in many ways, because the more Tony thought about it, the more comparisons he could find between himself and Loki. They had both gone through a lot, and were both smart and had snarky humor. They both paraded their knowledge and power in the same ways, and they both had many things that they regretted. Tony wondered if there was a way to save Loki, to make him see that he didn't have to be the bad guy, didn't have to be the one that was always underneath his brother. He could be his own person if he truly wanted to, and maybe whatever had led him here knew that maybe Tony could help him see that.

Tony fell into a troubled sleep filled with odd things happening to him by the hands of one Norse god, and he would not remember dreaming such things the next day.

XxX

Tony awoke pretty early that morning, finding himself wide awake and not able to roll over and get back to sleep. The first rays of sunlight were sneaking through the large windows and a single sliver of light went right over his face. That would be why he woke up. Tony rolled over and out of the bed, looking at himself in the mirror. His hair was a mess, but after he ran his hand angrily through it several times it obeyed and laid more flat. He was about to put some real clothing on, but decided just to stay in his undershirt and flannel pajama bottoms that had little cartoons of Iron Man on them. They had been a gag gift from Pepper.

Tony walked out into the large kitchen that was on this floor to find Loki sitting at the bar sipping a cup of what appeared to be tea. He had conjured himself some pajamas and was still wearing them, but his choice of pajamas were silk and the color of emerald. Tony stopped dead and stared at the god, who didn't seem to notice Tony's presence in the room.

There was something oddly peaceful about the way he was sitting there, reading the human _New York Times_ and idly sipping his tea. He looked for all cares and pretenses like a normal guy sitting down and enjoying a normal morning in his normal house. Tony suddenly felt uncomfortable. He didn't want to interrupt whatever Loki had going on, but he was so hungry. _Ah, what the hell?_

"Good morning, princess," Tony greeted cheerfully, walking into the kitchen. Loki looked up at him in slight confusion. "How'd you sleep?" Tony asked.

"I slept quite well, thank you, despite the general paranoia involved with being wanted by a race of aliens intent upon torturing you until you go insane," Loki responded in a light voice. His eyes were darker than usual, and he was a little paler, which gave away the fact that maybe he was suffering from fear and lack of sleep.

"Good to know," Tony answered, starting the coffee pot and finding himself the box of Lucky Charms that he was looking for. He sat down across from Loki with his bowl full of the sugary cereal.

"You know, if somebody would have told me a few days ago that I would be staying here in your building with you on Earth I would have laughed at them, and possibly killed them for good measure, but now I don't feel like killing anyone, I am sitting here quietly drinking tea, and talking to one of the Avengers without trying to kill them," Loki said ponderously.

Tony nodded. "That kind of thing happens to me all the time," he began, and Loki raised an eyebrow. "You know, without the whole killing thing." He took a large bite of cereal.

The coffee pot beeped and Tony got up to prepare himself a cup. "Would you like some coffee?" Tony asked Loki, who had finished his tea by now.

"No thank you, I rather detest the stuff," Loki said, cringing at the thought of the liquid.

"Okay then," Tony responded, sitting back down with a steaming mug. "So," Tony began, wondering just how to start this conversation. "I decided to do some reading last night. I wanted to know more about Norse mythology and all," Tony said.

Loki looked worried for a second. "Oh, dear," he murmured.

"I found some interesting things about the God of Mischief. Is it true that you gave birth to an eight-legged horse?"

Loki covered his face with his hands. It took him a few seconds to answer. "When we were children, Thor took to spreading awful rumors about me with the intention of getting the humans to believe all of it. He succeeded, and now I will be forever embarrassed by the mythology surrounding me," he whispered in utter mortification. "There are not many things in Norse mythology about me that are actually true."

"Did you ever spread any rumors about Thor, just to get back at him?" Tony asked.

"Nobody ever believed my rumors, because, you know, God of Lies and all, but I did attempt to."

"Yeah, that sucks," Tony responded, remembering all of the awful stuff that he had read about, mostly about Loki turning himself into a female and giving birth to things.

Tony noticed that Loki was toying with the device that was on his wrist. It was a thin little band of silver that would take some serious welding and tools to get off unless you had the device that was used to unlock it. It was great technology, but Tony knew that there were more effective, smaller devices that could track the god, but obviously these were the best technologies that SHIELD had to work with.

"Did they clamp that on too tight?" Tony asked him, remembering those stupid little paper wristbands they gave you at parties just so they could tell if you had paid to get in or not. The people who put those things on you _always_ put them on too tight, and Tony couldn't imagine what one of metal would feel like had it been put on way too tightly.

"No, just tight enough that I cannot slip it off of my wrist," Loki responded. They sat there for a few more seconds in silence, Tony sipping his coffee and Loki idly flipping through the pages of the _New York Times_.

"You know, your news is quite dreadful. While Asgardians have the threat of war and all, we do not have your economic problems, environmental problems, or the horrid political arguments you get into. Your Earth can be rather dreadful," Loki said. "And your people are very violent for being mortals."

Tony nodded. "Yeah, humans are really dumb most of the time," he chuckled, getting up and putting his empty coffee cup in the sink. "So, what do we have on the agenda for today?"

"Hmm… well, I was hoping that would be up to you, as I have no idea what you humans do with your time," Loki responded, and with a flick of his wrist he was no longer wearing pajamas, but black, well-tailored pants, and a green silk shirt.

"What is it with you and green? And silk?" Tony asked, eyeing the god's outfit.

"Green is my color," Loki said, pouting slightly. "And silk is very comfortable. Leather is only useful for when you are in armor or normal Asgardian clothing. I much prefer silk."

"I can understand why green is your favorite color to wear," Tony said, putting Loki's empty cup in the sink as well.

"You can?"

"Yeah, it totally brings out the color of your eyes."

**Hopefully I will have the next chapter up soon. I already have it typed and all, just waiting for some more reviews... I really do love those things...**


	5. A Taxi or Two

**aaay another chapter up! I hope that this one is a little more interesting... Heeehees**

"And here is the Empire State Building," Stark said, pointing to the tall, spiked building that they were walking past. They were currently on a tour of New York that Stark thought was necessary to give him. He had said something about seeing the city from the view of the tourist and not of the insane villain incessant on taking over the Earth. Loki had told him he couldn't see the difference. They had been walking around the city all day, and Loki was getting very tired. And he had also decided that eating at a hot dog vendor was not one of his favorite things. He preferred nicer places to eat where one did not have to magic ketchup off of one's shirt.

"Why must we keep looking at pointless buildings?" Loki asked, weary of walking around the city and pretending to look like he had any interest in what Stark pointed at. He wasn't one to marvel at architecture or gape at beautiful statues, even though it had been a little interesting about the first five buildings.

Start looked at him a little helplessly. "Oh, come on now, you aren't just a little impressed?" Stark asked.

"Not really, we have plenty of tall buildings in Asgard," Loki said simply. "Not to mention our buildings are all made of gold and actually defy gravity. And this place is dreadfully crowded," he said just as a man wearing a suit and holding a briefcase shoved past him. Loki turned and opened his mouth to threaten the guy, but stopped at the look that Stark was giving him.

Stark sighed. "Fine, what would you rather do?"

Loki thought about this. He also realized that he was rather hungry, as that hot dog had been a while ago. "Do you know of any nice restaurants here that are up to par?" Loki asked him.

A smile split Stark's face. "You bet I do," he said, dragging Loki by the arm and hailing the nearest taxi.

By the end of the trip Loki decided that he hated taxi drivers of all kinds. They were rude, noisy, and they smelled bad. Not to mention the fact that they drove like maniacs. Stark and Loki stepped out of the cab and Stark paid the driver. Loki leaned down to the window.

"You know, _sir_, I could make you suffer for what you have put us through," Loki hissed at the driver, giving him his evil look which could scare everything but a New York cabbie, who glared at him, but before Loki could make any more threats or get into a fight with the driver, Stark had pulled him away as quickly as he could.

As soon as they got into the restaurant that's name Loki didn't catch and found a seat Stark explained to him the way things went in New York City.

"First, do not question a cabbie's driving. You could get killed, and I do not know how much magic would help in that case," Stark began as they situated themselves into the rather small booth. "Second, do not threaten random people in New York. You never know which ones will stalk you until they get a chance to kill you. I have lived in California, which is all the way across the country, and the people there are much different than they are here. These people are of a tougher breed and it is best just not to mess with them if you are trying to keep up the 'not an evil villain right now' façade."

Loki just nodded, not really knowing what to think of being told what to do. Usually when people told him what to do it didn't end well, but somehow he knew that Stark was trying to look after him. He didn't know why exactly, but this made him happy; happier than he had been in quite some time.

A young waitress with an accent that Loki took to be New Yorker one took their drink orders, smiling at Stark in the way that a lot of women smiled at Stark. He was a bit of a catch with the women, especially since the whole 'Iron Man' thing. Loki didn't know why, but this irked him. Why must she ruin their dinner with her batting eyelashes?

Stark had asked for an expensive bottle of wine for them to share, and the waitress bobbed off to fetch it. As Loki looked around the place he realized that it was quite nice. There were small tables clustered around all with white table cloths on them, which were all filled with people on dates or here with family. It was a small restaurant, but they had arranged the tables in a way that sat a lot of people and still made the place seem spacious. The chairs were of deep wood, and there was soft lighting on all of the tables. All of the waiters and waitresses were wearing nice black and white clothing.

If Loki had known more about human customs he would have wondered why Stark had brought him to an almost romantic restaurant, but Loki didn't think about it once. He didn't know any better. Truth be told, Stark didn't think about it much either, he just remembered having fun at this restaurant many times before and thought that Loki might like it.

"So, is this a regular place for you?" Loki asked, picking up the menu and inspecting the dishes, none of which he had ever heard of before. He picked one at random and hoped for the best.

"Not really, I have only been here a few times before, but I do enjoy it," Stark responded, also picking up his own menu. He glanced through it once and then set it down. He had been here enough times to know what he liked.

The waitress brought their bottle of wine and two wine glasses, setting them in front of each man. She uncorked the wine and set it in between them. "Are you ready to order?" she asked.

"Yes, I am, what about you?" Stark asked Loki. Loki nodded and closed his menu. They ordered and the waitress left.

"So, this is rather strange," Stark said, running a hand through his hair. "A few weeks ago, it seems, you were threatening us and you threw me out of a window, and now we are sitting together in a restaurant in New York together." He looked a little uncomfortable, to say the least. Loki wondered if this had been a bad idea, going out into the city with Stark, alone. He wasn't used to being social, anyways, and didn't really know what to say. When he was young, Thor had done all of the talking and Loki had just followed along, and when he had gotten older and became the evil type he hadn't needed to be social. People tended to avoid the evil villain. The name 'silver tongue' had just come from how well he was able to lie to people, and sometimes for the quick, clever comments he sometimes made.

"You know, we can leave if you would like," Loki said, beginning to get a little claustrophobic in the tight booth.

"Naw, we're already here," Stark said, and he picked up the bottle of wine and poured it into both of their glasses. He picked up his glass and took a healthy sip. "Ah… everything is better with a little buzz," he said.

Loki picked up his own glass and took a little sip, testing it out. It was a deep red wine and was sweet and tangy at the same time, and it went down pretty smooth. It was the kind of wine that you could keep drinking without realizing how drunk you were getting until you fell over or vomited out your guts.

The somewhat awkward conversation did not stay awkward once alcohol was introduced, and soon they were happily discussing their childhoods, parents, and friends. Loki found himself saying much more than he usually would divulge to anybody, especially a known enemy, but everything was easily flowing off his tongue, and he wasn't much of a drinker, so he was more affected by the alcohol than Stark was. He also started to notice how much he wanted to pet Stark's goatee. He bid the urge away by shaking his head a few times.

"So, Mr. God of Mischief, do you have a lady friend back home that is waiting for you?" Stark asked him, waggling his eyebrows in a very childish way.

Loki started into his glass. "No," he answered, swirling the small amount of liquid at the bottom around.

Stark started at him for a few seconds. "Boyfriend?"

Loki looked up sharply. "No, I do not have either of those. I am a convict, you know, and people tend to stay away from convicts."

"Not here on Earth. You would be surprised," he chuckled. "Well, I _had_ a girlfriend until I screwed up, but it really makes me wonder if tiptoeing around your girl is a good thing, you know?"

Loki didn't really know how to respond to that, so he took another sip of his wine.

Their food came, and it was fabulous, but neither of the two really noticed the flavor of it too much. Truth be told, if asked what they had ordered the next day, they would draw a blank. They were more than slightly drunk and were deep in conversation, having moved from personal stuff to science and magic. It was something that both of them knew a good amount about, and they went on about it until both of their plates were clear, discussing deeply the reason behind the need for arc reactor technology and how it was related to the magic that Loki used. The bottle of wine on the table got lighter and lighter. Eventually they couldn't talk exactly clearly, so they decided it was about time to leave the poor restaurant alone. Stark did have a tendency to get rowdy when he was drunk.

They hailed a taxi, and this time around Loki was too drunk to care that the taxi driver was weaving through traffic wildly, or the fact that Stark had his arm around Loki's shoulder. These were just minor details that were overlooked in drunkenness. They made it back to Stark Tower without incident, and soon stumbled into the apartment level with all of the living quarters. Stark managed to stumble to a chair in the living room and flop down into it, leaning his head back on the headrest. Loki was very dizzy, but he managed to sit on the couch across from him.

"So, Reindeer Games, what did you think of your first day as a human?" Stark asked him, squinting as he tried to focus in on Loki.

"Quite interesting," Loki responded. "Glad that I was sent here, though."

Stark raised an eyebrow. "Glad that you were sent here?"

"Yes, if I would have landed at any of the other Avengers' houses they would have given me up. And anywhere else I could have gotten hurt, or been shot at, kidnapped, drowned, sacrificed, or something even worse," he slurred, rambling a little bit. But it was true, he was very happy that he had landed in Stark's place. It had turned out rather nicely.

"Well, I'm glad you landed here too," Stark responded plainly. Loki looked up, surprised, but his surprise was a little muffled by the alcohol. "Better to have intelligent, interesting company than nobody at all."

Loki thought about this for a second, and then he decided he needed to show Stark just how much he appreciated everything that had been done for him. "I- I need to thank you properly…" Loki said urgently, not knowing where this random sense of urgency came from. He wanted to act, but didn't know how. And then an idea struck him. It was a drunken idea, so not something that he would do normally.

"S'no need to thank me," Stark mumbled, his eyelids fluttering, and Loki could tell that he was about to fall asleep. He would need to act soon or he would not have time. Loki stood up and marched over to Stark, fisted his hand in the front of Stark's shirt, and yanked him to his feet. Stark's eyes widened, and he looked panicked, expecting Loki to attack him. And that he did, except not with violence.

Loki smashed his lips against Stark's and his brain went haywire, sent crazy by the feeling of Stark's mouth against his. Stark sort of melted into him, and the pair fell awkwardly on the couch, lips still connected. Loki felt Stark grab his shoulders and Stark was actually kissing him _back._ They broke apart far too quickly, in his opinion.

"Whoa," Stark murmured, and then proceeded to fall asleep on top of Loki, his head resting on the god's chest, who was way too drunk and tired to push him off, and it was also kind of comfortable, despite for the piece of metal in Stark's chest pressing into him. He fell asleep also, there on the couch with Tony Stark lying on top of him, wondering what in the world he had just done.

They both slept through the phone call that was for Stark, telling him that the other Avengers would be arriving there in the morning for a briefing and training. Stark also didn't receive the message that told him to warn the others about Loki, because Fury sure wasn't going to explain why the god was living with Stark to the others. They didn't hear one thing.

**Dun-dun-duuuun! Please review!**


	6. Keep Calm

**I thought I would just throw a general disclaimer in here as it seems the people of fanfiction are cracking down on the rules (scared out of my whits see?) Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, Marvel does... Like I could own such awesome characters anyways... Well, enjoy this chapter, and please review.**

Tony groaned when he opened his eyes. What had happened last night that had made him feel so crappy? Oh yeah, he had gotten pretty drunk last night, but with whom and where? He remembered something about a nice restaurant with too much wine, but the events were kind of blurry. And then he remembered the tour of New York that he had given to Loki and things started to click into place. So, he had taken Loki to one of his favorite restaurants here in New York and they had drunk way too much wine, which in itself wasn't all that unusual for Tony.

And then Tony came to his senses more and realized that he was not in his bed. In fact, he was not sleeping on a bed at all. He became utterly confused when he opened his eyes and was about to backpedal off the couch, but a voice stopped him in his tracks.

"WHAT THE HELL?" Tony turned his head and was faced with the group. All of the Avengers were standing there, holding their suitcases, with various expressions of alarm and surprise and fury on their faces. Romanoff was hiding a grin, Banner just looked frightened, Rogers was blushing slightly and frowning, and Thor looked rather angry. It was Barton who had asked the question on everyone's minds, including Tony's.

Tony quickly climbed off of Loki, who was stirring, and stood up, straightening his shirt, which had not been changed from last night.

"What is going on here?" Thor asked, moving forward and standing right in front of Tony. Tony suspected that if he did not start talking fast he would probably get Mjölnir to the head. At this point, Loki had sat up on the couch and was holding the side of his head, also hung over from last night. His hair was only a little askew, whereas Tony's looked like it had been in a wind tunnel.

"Um, it is really not how it looks," Tony said, holding up his hands.

"You better explain quickly, man of iron, or you shall face the consequences," Thor boomed at him, and Tony took a step back.

Loki stood up. "Thor, when you let me out of the cell I felt the need to get off of Asgard. You see, if the Chitauri knew I was no longer there, then they might stop attacking. I was about to jump off of the Rainbow Bridge, but the aftermath of an explosion hit me in the back. I fell off of the bridge unconscious and ended up here, in Stark Tower. Stark helped me until my magic was able to heal me." His quick explanation was met with stares from everyone.

Thor relaxed just slightly. "That still does not explain why you are still here, and why you were sleeping on the couch together."

Tony shrugged. "Fury came over here and told me that he did not want Loki out of our sight if he was going to be staying on Earth. He told me that Loki would stay here with me and we would keep a tracker on him." Tony explained, and Loki held up his wrist, showing off the silver band around it.

"Brother, you wanted to stay on Earth?" Thor asked Loki.

"Yes, I did not want to get caught by the Chitauri, and since I was brought here I thought I would take that to my advantage, especially since I was literally handed a nice place to stay."

Thor just nodded. Barton raised a hand. "I still would like to know why you were sleeping on top of him, and I believe that I am not the only one."

Tony shook his head. "We were out on the town, got some dinner, got a little drunk. We came back here and fell asleep on the couch." He remembered something else that had happened last night, but he was _not_ going to be discussing _that _with the others. He had done some odd things while drunk, but this was something that he would be looking into, something that was not going to let slide. It was just too strange.

The others nodded and got onto unpacking, finding their rooms, and other things. Thor did not leave though. "If it is alright with you, I would like a private word with my brother," Thor said to Tony, who shrugged and went to find Banner. Loki looked a little peeved at having to get a 'talking to' from his adoptive brother, but there was no getting out of that.

Bruce was hauling his suitcase into the bedroom that had been given to him, smiling at the large, 'Keep Calm' poster that was on the wall. He turned when he saw Tony. "Did you do this?"

"Yeah, I thought it would be funny," Tony responded. He had found that poster online and couldn't resist pasting it on the wall in Banner's room. He had kind of forgotten he had done that, it was so long ago. It hadn't actually been that long ago, but Tony had a really bad sense of time.

"So, you really think it is a good idea to have Loki here with you?" Banner asked him, setting the bag on his bed and starting to pull things out of it.

"You would have had to have seen him when he transported here to understand. He was a wreck, burned up and bleeding, not to mention unconscious on my floor. When he woke up he seemed so lost and tired. And then Fury just kind of dropped him on me."

Banner looked up at him. "Fury can be a little quick to act sometimes, I do agree with that," he responded.

"And yesterday Loki was so… I don't know, normal. He has all his magic and everything, but he has not tried to kill me or anything dastardly. You know, his normal personality is there, just without the majorly screwed up part."

"Is that why you went and got drunk with him?" Banner asked calmly.

Tony looked up sharply. "Okay, the guy looked like he needed a good time. Needed to take his mind off of things. And you know me, when in doubt go get some alcohol."

Bruce chuckled and put a stack of shirts into the dresser. "Well, if he ends up killing one of us, I am totally blaming it on you," he finally said.

"Okay, fine, but if you kill somebody I am totally blaming it on _you_," Tony retorted. Bruce smiled. Tony decided that Banner's easygoing attitude was just right at a time like this. "Just out of curiosity, why are you guys here, anyways?"

"We were called in to help for some reason. Fury said he would brief us once we all got settled in," Bruce explained.

"Hmm… nice to know that I am in the loop, and all, considering it is my building," he grumbled.

"Hey, Nick Fury did call and left you a message, you just didn't answer."

Tony just grumbled some more.

"Oh yeah, I was wondering if you would like to help me in my new research, you know, after whatever catastrophe has been diverted," Tony said.

"New research?"

"Well, now that Loki is here, we could totally look into what makes his magic tick, and how it affects technology and science. He seems like he would like to learn more about my arc reactor technology, so I figured it could be a little trade-off. Think about all that we could learn from him."

Banner nodded. "I would like that, actually. Thor could help out, too, if he doesn't mind. His magic is different than the magic that Loki uses, so it could be interesting."

Tony held up a thumbs-up and left Banner to his unpacking. He walked into the living room to find Loki and Thor standing apart facing each other with equal looks of anger on their faces.

"I am not your brother!" Loki shouted in exasperation. "It would do you well to stop calling me that!"

"Not by blood, but by bond, and that is the only thing that matters to me," Thor responded, his deep voice lowered even more in anger.

"I am not going to go back to Asgard to _die_ or be captured. Whatever it is that you are going through you can figure it out yourself," Loki hissed, crossing his arms.

"I am not asking you to come back and get killed; I just think that we would do better if we had your assistance."

"You do not need my assistance. You have all of your freak friends to help you, and look, they're all here," Loki said bitingly, gesturing around him, and he left the room quickly. They heard his bedroom door slam from across the hall.

"What was that about?" Tony asked, walking into the living room next to Thor, who had his arms crossed and a frown on his face.

"Asgard is still being attacked by the Chitauri. They don't seem to care that Loki is not with us; that is not the reason they came. They think that we sent out Loki as our spy just to ruin them. They think that Loki purposely lost in New York, that it was our doing, so they swear they will get revenge on us. That is why all of the Avengers have been called here; to help out in Asgard, because if Asgard falls so does the Earth. We are Earth's protectors."

Tony blinked a few times. "They're just going to send us to Asgard and expect us to fight there?" he asked in surprise.

"I have not heard the exact plans as Nicholas Fury will be telling us all of them later on, but I am assuming that it will be something like that," Thor responded.

"And what where you telling to your diva brother that made him flip out so much?" Tony asked.

"I was merely requesting that he help us out. We could use all of the numbers we can get, and he is one powerful fighter. He knows magic better than any of us," explained Thor. "He thinks that if he goes over there it will inevitably cause his death."

"Well, it's not like we have done anything to deserve his help," Tony responded. "And he doesn't really like us that much."

Thor sighed and sat down on the couch heavily. "I just wish there was something that I could do to make him see that there are individuals out there that do care for him. He tried to take over the Earth, lied to me, and did all sorts of horrible things, but I still love him. We grew up together, and just because he happens to be a Frost Giant it does not make me love him any less."

"I think that the way you express love and the way that he expresses it are two different things. You forcing your care on him is not something that he needs or wants. And you know, I think that he does have potential to become something other than an evil villain filled with hatred. Yesterday I saw a side of him that I have never seen before; a calm, content side," Tony explained.

"Yes, and you were able to get him drunk," Thor said, chuckling. "I have never seen anybody able to do that before. I think it was fate that brought my brother here, Stark. I think you might just be the right person to bring him through."

"Yes, and I think your presence just stresses him out," Tony responded, looking in the direction of Loki's bedroom. "He was fine until you showed up." Tony had the amazing skill to say what was on his mind, no matter what the repercussions.

Thor put his face in his hands. "Yes, it really does seem that way, now doesn't it? Maybe you should go talk to him before he jumps out of his window or something," Thor told Tony, raising his head up to meet Tony's gaze.

Tony nodded and left the room, headed to the other side of the floor. He started at the closed door to Loki's room for a few moments, steeling himself, and then knocked quietly.

"Go away, Thor, I've no wish to talk to you," came a muffled reply from inside.

"Yeah, definitely not Thor out here," Tony responded. He heard a rusting, and then the door was opened by Loki, who was glaring at him.

"What do you want?" Loki asked icily. "Here to try to convince me to listen to Thor?"

"No, actually. I just thought I'd make sure you didn't kill anyone or possibly hurt yourself trying to destroy the place by making Bruce Banner angry," he answered, smiling. "Because last time you made Banner angry you ended up lying in your own indentation in the floor."

Loki cringed and then sighed. "I am just tired of him."

"Banner?"

"No, I am tired of Thor. He thinks that he can come here, talk to me, and then everything will just be all fine and dandy. I want him to be out of my hair for just a little while, I need my space. I lived in his shadow when I was a child, and now here he is again, casting a huge shadow."

Tony thought about what he should say. He was standing on very thin ice here, and the water underneath was very deep. Loki had some dangerous issues, ones that he had dealt with for a long time, and plunging into those would be scary and hard to get out of. "Unfortunately, he won't be leaving anytime soon now that the Avengers have been called together. Maybe now is the perfect time for you two to work out your issues. You have enough room to get away from each other, and a whole group of people that can separate you if things get out of hand."

Loki nodded slowly. "Maybe you are right, Tony Stark," he whispered. Then he looked up, cringing. "You don't happen to remember anything that happened last night, do you?"

"Well, if you mean getting drunk, coming back here, having you literally attack me with your lips, and then falling down asleep on the couch together, then no," Tony chuckled, and Loki cringed even deeper. "Don't worry, Reindeer Games, things happen when people get drunk. I have accidentally kissed my fair share of men I hate."

"I don't hate you, Stark."

"Well, that's a new development."

"Surely you know that by now, as if I did hate you your life would be more of a living hell than it already is," Loki said calmly. "And how can I hate somebody who has lent me one of their rooms to stay in and kept me from dying a painful death out on the cold streets?"

"Point taken," Tony said. "Well, now that I know you are not going to do anything stupid in here, I will leave you in peace." He turned and left, conscious of Loki's eyes on him as he walked away. The way Loki had told him that he didn't hate him made Tony think a little bit. He had said it in such a way that suggested that he was hurt by the fact that Tony had said he hated him. If that made any sense at all. Tony, of course, was not very good at reading feelings, so he just kind of brushed it off to one side, the whole kiss thing and then the 'I don't hate you' thing. Tony had also tried to ignore the little flurry of chills he got whenever Loki said Stark in that crisp, British-sounding voice. He didn't know why, but he liked it a little too much.

**Please tell me if I am doing okay. I really want to know if I am making these poor characters sound anything like themselves... This is fun to write, though...**


	7. That is not how you use that

**This chapter was really meant to be attatched to the previous one, but I prefer each of the chapters to be about 2,000 words, and it was about double with both together, so wahla! Two chapters. Enjoy, and review.**

"Is my brother okay?" Thor asked him once he had made it back out into the main room that included the living room, dining room, and kitchen.

"Yeah, he is just irritated at you and your 'big brother' act. He just needs his time, that's all. He said he would try to work through it, though."

Thor's tension relaxed slightly. "I think I need you to stay around and be our messenger. You seem to have an affinity for Loki that none of us have," Thor said, hitting Tony on the back in a friendly way. Tony rubbed his shoulder, cringing.

"Yeah, I just think we are a little more similar than I thought. We can relate, that's all," Tony said.

"Sir, Nick Fury is here for the briefing," JARVIS said calmly.

"Send him in," Tony responded, glad that Fury was asking to come in rather than barging in.

A few minutes later the man with the eye patch and the long black coat was standing in the middle of the modern apartment floor, looking very out of place. Not so out of place as Thor, but definitely out of place.

"We can all meet at the table," Tony suggested, pointing to the long glass table that was off of one side of the kitchen. It was nice having such an open floor plan so that you could see where everyone was. That was kind of important when you had such dangerous people all in one place.

"Good idea," Fury said, and he started emptying the contents of his briefcase on the table, which included a computer-like device for presentations, notepads, and other unidentifiable devices. "We need everyone here, including Loki," Fury said, and the Avengers started to take seats at the table. Tony decided he better go get aforementioned Loki.

Tony knocked on Loki's door for a second time in so many minutes. Loki answered the door, looking exasperated. "What is it this time?"

"Nick Fury is here, and he would like you to be at our meeting," Tony said.

"I am NOT an Avenger," Loki said angrily. He was about to close the door when Tony held out his arm to stop it.

"Nope, you are coming to this meeting or Fury will blow a vein or something," Tony said. "Come on, it can't hurt you to just sit there with us."

Loki just glared at him some more.

"Come on, do it for me, if not for anybody else. You do owe me." Tony didn't like pulling that card, but found it necessary.

Loki sagged and walked out of his room, shutting the door behind him. He followed Tony into the kitchen area. When they walked in everyone turned and looked at them, and then quickly turned back to avoid staring. Tony could tell that they found it odd that Loki was there and they weren't fighting him; he could tell by their faces. Tony had found that odd the first few hours, but had gotten used to it.

Tony found an empty seat and Loki sat down next to him, on the opposite end of the table from Thor. Thor frowned at them, but didn't say anything.

"Alright everyone," Fury began. "It has come to my attention through the word of Thor, king of Asgard, that they are under attack by the Chitauri, who are hell-bent on getting revenge for a believed wrongdoing." Fury pressed a button on the computer and projected screen filled the air above it. Fury tapped on the projecting and it pulled up a file on the Chitauri, showing video feed of them fighting the Avengers, and then a small clip of them coming out of the portal.

"People, if Asgard falls, then the Earth is in grave danger. We will have no one to protect us from other alien races who want to take us over as they please," Fury went on. "We need to assist Asgard in getting rid of these monstrosities, or we may all be doomed."

"Can humans survive on Asgard?" Steve asked. "We can only fight if we are, you know, alive."

Thor decided to answer this. "Yes, but not for very long. A few hours at most are what humans can last there. Asgard has way too much magic and power inside of it for a normal human to bear for very long. In your and Bruce Banner's case, maybe longer since you are made of different stuff."

"That is not actually the plan," Fury said. "We will not be going to Asgard. We are going to trick the Chitauri into coming here, where we will be waiting to stop them."

"So, we are going to sacrifice Earth to save Asgard?" Tony asked, really wondering what had happened to Fury's brain.

"No, half of the Chitauri will be transported here, and half will stay on Asgard. It's all in the files that I am going to send to all of you to read over, including you, Loki," Fury said, looking pointedly at the God of Mischief, who glared back defiantly.

"Why should I help you?" he asked icily. "We are enemies, remember?"

Fury shook his head. "Considering the fact that we have given you almost complete freedom instead of locking you up, you should really stop thinking us your enemies. We are what you decide us to be," he responded.

Clint, Natasha, and Steve seemed unhappy that Loki was being asked to work with them. Bruce didn't really seem to have any feelings on the matter, and Tony found himself excited that Loki might be on the same side as them. What was this? Tony really needed to have a sit-down assessment of these wayward feelings.

A pained expression had crossed Loki's face, and his hands were fisted tightly on the table. He stood sharply and left the room. He didn't go to his bedroom, though. He went straight out to the small balcony that overlooked the city, closing the glass door heavily behind him. The balcony on this level sat beneath the large overhang on the penthouse level, so it was virtually invisible to anybody looking at the tower. It still had the most beautiful view of the city, though.

"Maybe he just needed some fresh air?" Tony said quietly, looking out at Loki who was leaning on the railing and staring out at the city.

Thor shook his head. "My brother is lost. He does not know what path he is going to choose, and it bothers him greatly. He must be shown the way."

Tony found himself mad for some reason. "I think the problem is that everyone thinks they know what is going on inside his mind. It's the worst thing that somebody can do to think that they know what is troubling somebody who is trying to be left alone. I think we should let him think it through and maybe back off a little bit." Tony had said it a little harsher than he had meant to, and the group was looking at him oddly.

"Seems like you care more about the evil villain than you should," Fury said dangerously, as if it being true would cause him pain, most likely by the hands of Fury.

Tony shook his head. "I don't know, but it sure seems like he needs somebody to care for him in the right way," he said softly. "Sometimes just caring is not enough."

Banner had raised an eyebrow. "Since when have you been a psychologist?"

Tony caught himself. He had been teetering on the edge of those feelings that he had desperately been holding down for years; emotions that Tony Stark didn't like to deal with. He closed his eyes for a few seconds.

"I'm sorry. I just got a little… can you excuse me?" Tony said, and he stood from the table and went to his own bedroom without looking at anybody. He sat on the edge of his bed, head in his hands, thoughts careening wildly around his head. Why was he standing up for Loki so strongly? Why did he want to make sure that Loki was okay? It wasn't like Loki had ever stood up for him or done anything to help him. But Loki had thanked him how many times? And just because somebody was drunk did not mean that kissing somebody was completely innocent. Tony had only been consoling Loki when he had told him that he had kissed a good amount of men he hated. He had meant to confront Loki about that, but the resolve in him had melted upon seeing Loki so embarrassed about the kiss. Tony had only ever acted upon people that he actually had some affections for, not people that he didn't like. When people were drunk their feelings were only multiplied, not completely switched. So, that meant that Loki had to have s_ome_ affection for him. Oh, god, what was he going to do?

Well, nothing for it now. Now was not a good time, so Tony pushed all feelings aside for now, waiting for later to deal with them. That was what Tony Stark did best, shelving important feelings.

Wow, now that he thought about it, he had probably looked pretty screwed up out there. They were probably all talking about him. Hey, I think Stark has officially gone crazy, knew it would happen at some point. No, he would not have that. Just because he was going through some emotional turmoil did not mean that he was crazy. Just because Loki had gone through some really bad emotional turmoil and almost destroyed Earth did not mean that he was crazy.

He sighed, not knowing what he should do now. Go back out and face the gang that now thought him to be a wreck? Sit here and make them think that he was a wreck? Nothing would do him any good. That was when he heard a knock on the door.

Tony stood up and opened it, not caring to ask who it was. _Loki._

"Uh, what are you doing here?" Tony asked, aware of how uncomfortable Loki looked.

"Well, I came back into the meeting to tell them that I would fight alongside them if they treated me as an equal and not some pet that needs training. And then Fury said that you had stood up for me in a rather major way, so I thought I would come and make sure that _you_ are okay as opposed to you always that of me."

Tony was more than a little shocked. This was not something that he would expect of Loki, the cold, angry villain, but here he was, wanting to make sure that Tony was okay.

"I'm good, but thank you for asking. You know, under the circumstances I have an interesting time trying to remember that you were one horrible enemy. You're just being too nice to me. I think it is your brother that makes you behave the way you do, because when he is not around you are like another person."

Loki looked like somebody had spilled water over his head, which Tony remembered he had done the day before yesterday. "I just get so…angry when Thor is around. It has something to do with my childhood I believe," he responded softly, thoughtfully. "Well, um, I shall be going now, er…"

Tony found himself staring at Loki's mouth as the god talked, wondering what it had felt like to kiss him, because he had been way too drunk to remember that. _Whoa. Where had that thought come from? _

Loki was frowning at him, noticing Tony's lack of responding. "Yeah, uh, thanks, I'm coming back out too," Tony mumbled, and then followed the god back into the dining area. The group had disbanded and was now sitting on the couches or in the kitchen chatting idly. Fury was nowhere to be seen, having already left already, Tony supposed. Fury was not one for idle conversations. Nobody paid any attention to the two now entering the room.

"What is this horrid contraption?" Thor's voice boomed through the kitchen.

"That would be a microwave," Banner answered, raising an eyebrow. "And that is definitely _not_ how you use it."

Tony chuckled and put buying a new microwave on his internal list of things to do as he sat down on the couch, allowing space for Loki to sit on the other end. Tony decided he really liked this messed up reality that he was currently living in, with his mutant friends around him laughing and joking together, even if one of his new friends happened to be a messed up Norse god. Tony actually admitted to himself that that one happened to be his favorite.

**Alrighty then, please review! Oh, and I will be out of town for the next two days, so it might be a little while until I get to posting the next chapter... sooo... don't kill me**


	8. Don't Sneeze

**Yay! I am back! This was a fun chapter to write and I hope that you will enjoy it too. **

Loki knew that telling the Avengers that he would help them was really a bad idea. But something about the prospect of working _with_ Stark was alluring, and Loki could not for the life of him figure out why. It was another one of those feelings inside of him that were eating him alive, another part of himself that he couldn't trust. Of course, this new feeling was not nearly as painful as some of the other ones. This one was almost warm and fuzzy, but that made Loki distrust it even more. He would have to keep an eye on this.

Over the next few weeks the group spent most of its time going over plans and battle strategies and working together. Working together was the class that Loki found himself failing immensely, and getting in trouble for it too. He kept 'accidentally' hitting Thor with magic or insulting another member instead of giving status updates over the communication systems. The only person able to get Loki to do anything helpful was Stark, and Loki could tell that it was amusing him to no end.

Fury was also getting very fed up with Loki, and Fury was really not someone you should allow to get fed up. Loki was extremely powerful, no one could deny that, but he was unruly and tended to only think of himself when in battle. He would let another Avenger get hurt if it meant that he himself would not get hurt. After so many years of acting like this, Loki found it extremely hard to start thinking of other people. It wasn't as if he still wanted to get people killed, he just had the selfish actions hardwired into his brain.

He told Stark this on one morning that they were sitting at the bar together. This had become a sort of tradition between the two of them, waking up a little earlier to avoid the others for just a little while and sitting at the bar eating breakfast, or in Loki's case drinking a cup of tea. They would talk quietly about whatever it was in the group that was troubling them or other trivial things. Loki found that he looked forward to talking to Stark, who seemed to understand him more than anyone else. And Loki found his calm, humorous responses to things that were troubling him almost comforting, making things less heavy and hard to deal with.

"You know, Fury really is going to roast you alive if you fail another one of those teammate training sessions," Stark said, stirring his coffee.

"I know, I just can't seem to make myself work with your friends without doing or saying something wrong," Loki said. "It's sort of a natural instinct for me. I always have to look after myself or somebody is going to kill me behind my back or something like that."

Stark smiled. "You have found yet another thing that you share in common with me," he said in an almost astonished voice. "I don't play well with others, they told me. When it comes down to it, taking care of 'number one' is most important."

"But you seemed to work through that," Loki said.

"Well, I had to, otherwise you would have destroyed the Earth with your minions and all," Stark said lightly. Loki would have bristled at anyone else saying that, but coming out of Stark's mouth it hadn't meant harm.

"Good to know you learned," Loki said dryly.

"Hey, we'll find a way to make you useful and make you one of us. Wouldn't it be cool to call yourself an Avenger?"

Loki's mouth twisted as he thought about this. He supposed it would be kind of nice to refer to himself as a good guy, instead of the one everyone detested. He nodded, smiling slightly.

Stark checked his watch. "Hey, you know, I don't think we have any training today. Fury is going to be working with Thor and the people at HQ to figure out more diplomatic stuff, but we are totally free. What do you say to going down to the workshop and throwing your magic at stuff to see what it does to it?" he said, smiling like a little kid who was asking to go to the toy store.

"While I don't think that throwing my magic around is a good thing, I do believe it would be interesting to see your workshop," he answered, putting his cup in the sink and dressing in normal clothing with a flick of his wrist. Today's clothes were even more casual than usual, with a grey t-shirt that had green stripes and deep blue jeans that fit magically. No matter what clothes he wore he still cut a pretty impressive figure, especially because of the hair.

"That trick is really handy," Stark mumbled, looking at Loki in awe, even though he had seen the god do this many a time before. Loki didn't really think much of it, he had been able to do it almost all of his life, but to a human he guessed it probably would be unbelievable.

They finished up in the kitchen and made it down to Stark's workshop before any of the others had awoken. Stark was going to ask Banner if he wanted to come down with them, but as Banner and all of the others were still fast asleep they thought it wasn't a good idea. Loki found himself looking around in awe. There were robots and machines everywhere, and a huge bank of computers that Stark must use for planning out his inventions.

"If you think this workshop is cool you should see my main one back in my home in California," Stark said, moving into the large room and turning on the computers with a wave of his hand. Designs for other projects were projected into the air, but Stark pushed them away with a wave of his hand. With another few motions of his hands he had pulled up the three-dimensional designs for his arc reactor. He picked up the projection and handed it to Loki, who took it tentatively.

"This is very interesting technology that allows you to be able to pick up things from your computer," Loki said, examining the projection that had absolutely no weight or feel in his hand.

"Yeah, just another one of my inventions," Stark said modestly. He took back the projection and sat down in his chair, gesturing for Loki to sit in the chair next to him. Stark spent the next hour or so trying to explain the technology behind his arc reactor to Loki, using the projections to show Loki what he meant. Loki was a pretty fast learner and understood it pretty well.

"You know, based on your explanations, it sounds as if this arc reactor technology is not far from my magic. You are so close to breaking into the realm of magic that you might want to start hiding this from the rest of your people quickly," Loki said.

"Don't worry, I have not given anyone the directions how to make this, and they are far from figuring it out themselves," Stark said, leaning back in his chair.

"I wonder…" Loki whispered to himself, letting his magic curl around his fingertips.

"What?" Stark asked him, breaking his concentration.

"Oh, nothing."

"Hey, do you mind if I hook you up to some of my energy reading devices and look at the results?" Stark asked him.

"As long as it can't kill me or do irreversible damage," Loki said, a slightly nervous expression on his face. He didn't trust machines.

"It won't hurt you as long as you don't sneeze while hooked up," Stark said calmly as he began to pull out the devices.

"What?"

"Here, put these on your temples and these ones on your forehead," Stark instructed him, ignoring his previous question. Loki did as he was told without any more protests, though he tried hard not to feel itchy around the nose area.

XxX

"Does everyone know the plan?" Fury asked as he paced back and forth in the main room of the helicarrier. The whole Avengers team and Loki were all on the ship sitting at the consultation table that was off to one side, all looking at Fury with the blank expressions of people who had been sitting and listening to Fury for longer than necessary.

"Yeah, we have gone over them like three times already," Tony groaned.

"Yeah, Agent Fury, we got it," Steve said, scratching his head.

"Alright, Thor, go talk to them and meet us back here as soon as possible," Fury said, and Thor nodded. He and Loki stood up. With their combined magic they were able to send Thor back to Asgard, where he would be telling the Chitauri that he wanted to hand over Loki to them for punishment. They would have to come take Loki from SHIELD on Earth, but if they got ahold of him they could have him. Thor would give them the place that they would be making the hand-off.

Loki and Tony would be waiting at the hand-off site, and once they spotted the Chitauri they would give the signal. That was when the others would attack, hopefully beating the smaller group that they had sent. Of course, this whole plan depended on Thor's communication skills and the Chitauri's want to get revenge on Loki. There was a good amount left to chance, and Tony knew that Fury was probably not very happy about that.

"Stark, Loki, get ready for departure," Fury said to them. Loki would have to wear handcuffs so that he looked like he was being detained by SHIELD, and Tony would only wear his Iron Man suit to fly down to where they would be waiting. He needed to take it off to act like it would be a peaceful hand-over.

Tony walked over to the side of the ship that had his suit in a locker. On the press of a button it sprung off of its hooks and formed around him. The displays inside the helmet lit up and adjusted and JARVIS's voice came on crisp and clear.

"Hello, sir."

"Hey, JARVIS, ready for another spin?"

"Yes, always ready."

Tony walked back out into the main room fully suited to find Fury yelling at Loki who was standing there with his arms straight by his sides and his face drawn in anger.

"You are going to get us all killed! I shouldn't have allowed Stark to take you in!"

Loki remained silent, anger coming off of him in waves. Tony stepped between them and popped his visor up to look at each of them. "You guys need to settle down. We already have the plan set. There is nothing that yelling at each other is going to accomplish."

"He started it," Loki mumbled, crossing his arms, and Tony couldn't help but chuckle, not knowing whether or not Loki had meant to make that a joke.

Fury looked at his fancy watch. "Time to go, Stark. If you put us behind schedule I will personally see to your execution," Fury said, and Tony didn't doubt one bit that he would.

Tony and Loki walked out onto the main deck of the helicarrier. "You better not drop me," Loki warned as he moved closer to Tony.

"Well, don't bother me," Tony responded and he grabbed ahold of Loki. "Hang on." And with that he took off. At the very last moment Loki clamped his hands around Tony's neck for more support, his eyes wide in anxiousness.

It was rather awkward flying longer distances holding onto another person. Tony usually used the blasters in his hands to stabilize himself, but that was not an option when he was holding onto Loki. It was a good thing that he had become a seasoned flyer or they might have just ended up in the side of a building, or the ground for that matter.

The building that they were headed to was a warehouse on the edge of the city near a place that had a smaller population to avoid getting innocent mortals in the way. It was a more secure location, and they were able to have cameras on the place from all angles to watch for the Chitauri's arrival. Tony landed right outside and let go of Loki, who moved away from him, looking grateful to be on solid ground again.

"Oh yeah, you need to give yourself some handcuffs," Tony told Loki, who materialized handcuffs around his wrists. "That gag too?" Tony asked, and Loki sighed. A few seconds later Loki was wearing the metal muzzle.

Tony nodded, and then gave a command to JARVIS. The Iron Man suit started to fold in on itself and became a little metal box with a handle. Tony hid it in a good spot outside the warehouse, making sure to remember where it was for later. He took out the little bracelets from his pockets and put them on his wrists to make sure that the suit would fasten to him when he needed it later on.

Both Tony and the newly shackled Loki made their way into the warehouse, which was empty other than a few dusty tables and the odd piece of ancient machinery. The place looked like it hadn't been touched in years, and the roof was crumbling away in places to let in sunlight.

Loki raised his eyebrows at Tony, and Tony imagined he meant something along the lines of, 'nice meeting place you got here.'

"Yeah, Fury does have interesting taste in architecture, doesn't he?" Tony said sitting down in a chair that looked a little less dusty than the others. Loki found another one near him, sitting awkwardly due to the fact that his hands were a little less useful than they usually were having been shackled.

They waited for a little while, and then the tiny earpieces in both of their ears buzzed to life.

"Stark, are you in position?" Fury asked.

"Yup, yup, Mr. Fury, sir," Tony said, smiling at Loki, who merely shook his head slightly.

"Good, now hold your position until we give you any more updates, got that?"

"I copy, over," Tony said again. Fury ignored his joking, as usual.

It was rather awkward, sitting in an empty warehouse waiting for something to happen, especially since the person you were sitting there with was gagged and unable to respond to you. Tony found himself blabbering on about his life back home and how he didn't actually miss it that much. Loki seemed to be listening, too, so Tony told him about his loneliness, about how nothing ever worked with any of the women that he had ever been with, about how he wished that there was someone out there that would understand his feelings. None of this was anything that he was usually comfortable saying, but the way that Loki was sitting there made him feel like he could trust Loki with all of this information. And over the weeks they had talked to each other about more and more and actually became the equivalent of friends.

"Stark, get ready. Thor is back and says that there is a large group of about thirty Chitauri or more headed for you. They should be there in about ten minutes," Fury said through the earpiece, and both Tony and Loki jumped in surprise, jolted from their one-sided conversation.

"Yeah, got it. Preparing ourselves," Tony said into his earpiece.

"Good," Fury responded. Tony didn't really know what he needed to do to prepare other than sit here and wait, because the Chitauri needed to see that he was not in his suit for them to trust him, and he wasn't going to leave the warehouse, so he just sat and waited, ready for some sort of action other than just sitting here anxiously.

Not that much later they heard a rather loud voice. It sounded like one of the Chitauri's leaders broadcasting his translated voice out for them to hear.

"Nice try, humans, but we can see right through your little trap," it said darkly. That was when there was a loud explosion and the whole warehouse started shaking. Loki looked up in alarm and his bonds were suddenly gone. He and Tony stood up quickly, but had no time to go anywhere as the building started to collapse on itself. Tony pressed a button on one of his bracelets, but it was far too late. All they were able to do before the building flattened itself on top of them was look at each other one last time.

A large piece of concrete landed over top of Tony, effectively pinning him to the floor, but also keeping more dangerous pieces from killing him. The only problem was that the concrete had hit him hard in the chest, cracking the glass on his arc reactor. He looked at it helplessly as it flickered, willing it to stay powered, because if it went out while he was in here, he was as good as dead. He might also die of suffocation or starvation if they didn't find him under here soon, but his arc reactor failing would kill him much faster.

The little light in his chest flickered off for a final time, going completely dark. _Well, shit._

**Please review! And sorry about the cliffhanger, I couldn't resist.**


	9. Another Avenger

**Ugh, I finally got this chapter finished. This one gave me a bit of trouble, but here it is. You lucky readers get a chapter that is much longer than they usually are...**

Loki had just enough time before the building completely fell on him to make a small shield around himself. He would have put one around Stark too, but unfortunately there just wasn't enough time for that. Loki really hoped that Stark hadn't gotten crushed.

Loki made it out of the building slowly, coming out to find that the Chitauri were nowhere to be seen, and the Avengers team was standing around staring anxiously at the building, not knowing where to start in the rescuing department or in the defeating the Chitauri department. They looked up excitedly when they saw Loki, but seemed to deflate when they noticed that it wasn't their beloved Stark. Everyone but Thor deflated. Thor seemed extremely happy that it was his brother that was alive.

"Stark is still in there, we must find him," Loki said urgently to them. Rogers stepped toward Loki.

"Saved yourself, did you?" he asked harshly. Loki bristled.

"Yes, but only because that was the only available option. I couldn't get to Stark in time before the building fell," Loki said sharply. "And it is better to get one out alive to help save the other than both of us dying."

Rogers fell silent but still fumed. They all glanced back at the building. "Come on, we gotta find him," Barton said, walking toward the building quickly.

They began their search, moving the difficult rubble aside slowly. And finally there was a shout by Banner. "Found him. Here, somebody help me pull him out!"

The others all grouped around, all helping to pull the rubble off of Stark, who seemed to be unconscious. They got him completely out, and Loki carried him over to the side of the building on the grass, setting him down gently and kneeling next to him. And then Loki noticed that there was a distinctive glow missing from the center of Stark's shirt.

Loki frantically pulled up Stark's shirt to see a huge crack in the arc reactor, which was as dead as a doornail. "Oh no, his arc reactor is dead," Loki hissed, and the other Avengers gave various cries of surprise and grief. Loki leaned down and heard that Stark still had a very weak heartbeat, but that would not last much longer with that device not working.

"How can we help him, does he carry an extra with him?" Banner asked, kneeling next to Loki and Stark.

"He has never said anything about an extra," Loki said, closing his eyes in concentration. He thought back to the displays he saw of the device on Stark's computer. He remembered his brainwave that he had had, the thought that maybe his magic could power an arc reactor if needed. It was worth the shot. He would not let Stark die, not if he could help it. Stark had saved him, and now he was going to repay the favor. Not to mention the fact that Stark was now his only real friend, the only person that he found he really wanted to be around. No, Stark was not going to die on his watch.

"I would stand back if I were you," Loki told the others and they were confused at first, until Loki let magic flow down his arm and pool around his hands. It swirled madly, working into one of the largest casts that Loki had done in a long time. He closed his eyes tighter and concentrated on nothing but the magic, and when he opened his eyes again they were much brighter green than they usually were. He held up his hands, placed them on the arc reactor in Stark's chest, and let the magic flow heavily into the device.

The arc reactor glowed with power under Loki's touch, but he knew that if he pulled away now it would just fall dead again. No, he needed much more power. He gritted his teeth and summoned as much magic as he could muster, causing his hair to fizzle with sparks and the air around him to shimmer with green light. Connections opened that had never been opened before between Loki and the power he was casting, and the sensation was amazing. He felt like he was on fire, but the fire was ice cold and tingly. The others had backed away quickly and now were standing a fair distance away, watching with awe.

"Come…on," Loki grunted, and he let go with a final surge of power. The magic was still swirling heavily around the center of Stark's chest, and when it all finally sunk in the arc reactor was glowing steadily green, instead of its usual bright blue glow. But it was still glowing steadily.

Loki sagged, completely drained from the magic usage. He had not used that much magic in a really long time, if ever, and he was feeling slightly light-headed. There was still magic swirling around him and it was making him feel really peculiar.

And then Stark's eyes fluttered open. "Ugh… why do I feel like a building has just collapsed on me?" he groaned. Loki immediately straightened, smiling.

"That is because a building did, indeed fall on you," he responded, smiling genuinely, and then because he was high on magic and relief he sprung on Stark, kissing him roughly on the mouth. This time was much different than the first time, though. Neither were incapacitated by drink, and they both had recognized their hidden feelings a little more and knew each other a lot more. No, this time they were both kissing each other completely aware of what they were doing, and Stark was wrapping his arms around Loki's neck, pulling him closer, and Loki had his hands on Stark's shoulders. Both had kind of forgotten there were five other people watching them, though, and maybe the whole SHIELD base as they were still on the cameras. They broke apart when somebody had cleared their throat.

Loki sat up to find that there were five Avengers staring at him with wide eyes and surprised expressions. Rogers was bright red, Banner had his mouth open slightly, Romanoff was hiding a smile, Thor was just genuinely confused, and Barton looked like he was going to kill something or someone.

"Brother, did something from the building knock you in the head a little too hard?" Thor boomed, moving toward Loki. Loki stood up and faced Thor.

"No, I know exactly what I am doing, and if you have a problem with it you should keep it to yourself, because, Thor, I do what I want."

Stark had managed to get to his feet. "Guys, settle down," he said, raising his hands in front of him.

Thor turned on him angrily. "You have seduced my brother!" Thor thundered, raising Mjölnir at Stark, who began backing away quickly, eyes wide.

Loki jumped between Thor and Stark, facing the blonde god with a dangerous expression on his face, magic still coming off of him like a crazy aura. He looked ready to murder somebody, and Thor took a step back.

"If you lay one hand on him, Thor, you will suffer the consequences, and I will not hold back," Loki whispered, his soft voice much more frightening than Thor's loud shouts.

"Brother, I am merely worried about your choices, that is all," Thor said in a quieter voice than before. Loki shook his head.

"I do not want you worrying about my choices. They are mine to make."

Stark had stepped from behind Loki to look at Thor. "What happened to you telling me that I am good for Loki?" he asked, an eyebrow raised. Loki looked back at Thor, curious as to what Stark was talking about.

Thor seemed slightly speechless. He backed away, shaking his head. "I need time to process this, brother," he finally said.

The speechless Avengers had finally come to their senses. "Okay, I personally had no idea that either of you played for _that_ team," Barton mumbled.

Stark scratched his head. "You know what, neither did I until Loki started to confuse me," he confessed. "Now I know that it is impossible for me to be completely straight if I enjoyed _that_ so much," he said, gesturing to Loki with a smile. Loki seemed a little astonished, especially by the fact that Stark was able to talk about things like that so freely.

There was loud static from all of their earpieces and they all scrambled to turn down the volume. "What is going on down there?" came Fury's booming, angry voice.

They all looked at each other, expressions of wonder written on their faces. What would they tell Fury?

"We have cameras set at every angle, you know, and you seemed to be very distracted for people who have revenge to get on a race of aliens who just almost killed a fellow Avenger," Fury said. So, he had seen everything. His voice suggested only a little surprise.

There was a loud explosion in the distance from the direction of the city. "The Chitauri have not left, people, and we may still be able to stop them if we get our act together," Fury said, and the whole team straightened up and got ready for whatever craziness it was they were about to get into. "Our plan may not have gone to the dogs just yet."

"You know, I have to say I am rather tired of those guys," Stark mumbled as they heard a helicopter coming to pick them up to fly them back up to the helicarrier. They all climbed aboard, squeezing slightly to be able to fit the whole group.

Loki stood next to Stark, extremely relieved still about his being able to save him. Stark looked down at the glow that was showing through his shirt.

"So, you used our research to save me, didn't you?" Stark asked him quietly.

"Yes, it was a wild hypothesis that saved your life. Good thing my hypothesizes are usually correct."

"Hey, guess what, Reindeer Games?"

"What?" Loki asked nervously.

"We are now completely even. You no longer owe me, you are out of my debt," Stark said, smiling. For some reason this absence of a commitment to Stark made Loki feel a little sad. Stark frowned, and Loki knew that he had seen those feelings written on his face.

"Hey, that does not mean that you can't be in the Avengers anymore, you proved your worth to the gang when you saved my life," Stark continued, bumping his shoulder against Loki's, which was not the best thing to do in a very crowded helicopter. Banner grumbled at Stark when Loki was pushed into him.

Loki frowned at Stark. A few minutes later he spoke so only Stark could hear him. "Thank you, Stark."

XxX

"We need to get rid of these guys once and for all, because they are really ticking me off," Fury said as he paced behind the conference table for a second time that day. The Avengers, now officially including Loki after what he had done, were sitting there, wanting to get into some action but having to wait on Fury to make a good decision.

"Come on, they're out there literally waiting for us," Steve said restlessly. Fury just shook his head.

"The last plan we made suffered greatly and two of us almost died from how bad it was. We need something that will actually work. At least we did get some of the Chitauri here from Asgard," Fury said, still pacing.

Tony was sitting at the table, looking like he was paying close attention, but he was actually lost deep in thought. Loki had kissed him again, this time completely in control of his actions, and Tony had _enjoyed_ it. He looked down at his chest at the green glow beneath his shirt and sighed. He kept looking over at Loki, wondering what the god was thinking, and also just staring to stare. Now that Tony really thought about it, Loki w_as_ good looking in a dangerous sort of way and Tony couldn't help but feel chills when he thought of kissing him. Tony groaned inwardly. He was in it deep.

He was jolted out of his inner turmoil by an explosion and the ship vibrating dangerously. Fury had started barking orders to the people in the main computer bank and then faced the Avengers.

"It's your lucky day, people, they have brought the fun to us," he said to them. They all looked out the large windows in the front of the room to see a few Chitauri speeding by on their little flying machines, shooting at the large ship with their weapons.

The Avengers stood up and got their various weapons ready for use. Tony clicked the button on his wrist and the compact suit that they had brought back up from the warehouse fastened to him quickly. Steve, who was already in his outfit just pulled the mask over his eyes and hefted his shield. Clint picked up his bow and snapped the cord out, making it ready to load and fire. Natasha just stood up, pushing the hair out of her eyes and smiling excitedly. Thor picked up Mjölnir and held it out, ready to hit anybody in his way. Bruce stood awkwardly, not knowing what to do exactly, as turning into a giant rage monster right now was not a good idea. Loki summoned his magic that now seemed much more willing to follow his commands and smiled at Tony dangerously, his magic flitting around him in a way that was hypnotizing and made him look very powerful. Tony was very glad that there was a mask currently hiding his face, because his mouth was agape in awe and surprise.

"Alright, fellas, let's kick some Chitauri ass," Fury said darkly, and the Avengers moved out towards the deck to secure the helicarrier.

When they made it out, they were immediately bombarded with the fire from the Chitauri. Tony glanced at the others, who were now firing, hitting, or smashing their various weapons at the aliens. Bruce had glanced once around and then let out the 'other guy', and now he was flinging himself at the flying creatures and pulling them off of their mounts with ease and flinging them out into the sky.

Tony blasted off of the ground and engaged his weapons system, firing as quickly as he could at the many hostile forces. "Hey, this is a lot more than thirty Chitauri," he said into his communications system as he dodged one flying right at him.

"They must have been hiding most of their troops," Fury responded, interference making his voice choppy. "Just try to keep them from destroying the engines," he said.

"Gotcha," Tony said and took off to go fly near one of the engines to keep it safe. It was easy at first, but soon he was met with floods of them, all firing at him. He continued to dodge and fire, but there were too many for just him to fight.

"Hey, I need some backup over here!" he called over the comm as he narrowly dodged a blast from one lucky Chitauri. A few seconds later Barton was there, letting arrows pepper the Chitauri from his spot inside the ship shooting out a window, and Tony continued to go after them in his suit. There were soon decidedly less aliens attacking the engines.

"Alright, I'm headed back to the others, they still have a ton around them," Barton said, and with that he left Tony to continue guarding the engine by himself.

"Hey, does somebody have the other engines?" he asked the others.

"Yeah, Thor's at the other one," Steve told him, and then Tony heard a yell that sounded suspiciously like Loki's voice. He wondered what was going on up there.

"Hey, Stark, Thor, we need you up here," shouted Steve, and Tony started flying back up to the main deck.

The small group that was on the deck was completely surrounded by a large number of the aliens that were now on foot. It looked like a madhouse with so much fighting going on that it was hard to make out who was doing what. The only person that Tony knew was right below him was Loki because the magic that was surrounding him was so bright. He was using it to fling balls of energy at the unfortunate Chitauri who collapsed when it hit them. He also had acquired a sword of some kind and was hacking at the Chitauri near him while he threw magic everywhere. It was a sight to see.

Tony landed near him and began shooting and punching every alien he could get a hand on. There were still so many, though, and it was getting harder and harder to fend them off.

"Hey, JARVIS, how's my power looking?" he asked the AI.

"Actually, sir, it appears that the power source is not depleting any. You seem to have unlimited power due to the magic in your arc reactor," the AI responded.

Tony smiled. This was going to be fun. He used the computer system in his helmet to focus a target on all of the Chitauri he could currently see, careful to make sure that he wouldn't hit any of his fellow Avengers. This would take a good amount of power, but of that he had no limit. He lowered his center of gravity so that the aftershock wouldn't knock him over and then gave a command to JARVIS.

"Deploy shocker," he told the AI. A blast of pure energy forked from his suit and hit all of the Chitauri and they crumpled to the ground, senses overloaded. This weapon Tony had installed was worse than using a Taser and it was only for emergency situations, as it depleted power very quickly. Well, since he had unlimited power at the moment, and this situation had gotten pretty dire, it was definitely worth it.

The Avengers stopped, the opponent they were fighting having dropped unconscious. "What was that?" Barton asked as he looked around his feet in surprise.

"That was a very special weapon in my arsenal that I can only use if I have power to spare," Tony said, flipping up his mask and smiling. "And apparently having magic in your arc reactor means that you get unlimited power."

"That weapon was very helpful," Thor said, pushing his hair back into position, having been a little ruffled from the fight.

"Yeah, and it seems that the Chitauri are all gone," Tony responded, looking around the skies to see if he had missed one.

A door to inside the helicarrier opened and Nick Fury stepped out. "Nice work," he grunted, stepping over the unconscious Chitauri to get over to them. "We have taken care of all of the Chitauri here with us, but who knows how many are back in Asgard."

"Hmm… well based on the numbers of Chitauri here there cannot be that many back at home. We should be able to finish them off by ourselves," Thor said, scratching his chin. "I wouldn't be surprised if my warriors have already finished them off."

Fury nodded. "We have done well."

"We? I didn't see you out here fighting with us," Tony said, and then gave a command to JARVIS. His suit began to fold up and turned back into the little case with a handle.

"I was in there making sure that you guys were in the right positions so that we didn't get killed," Fury said sharply.

"Just messing with you," Tony mumbled.

"I must get back to Asgard immediately," Thor said. "Loki, you must assist me in getting there," he said, turning to Loki.

Loki had sat down on the ground and was looking rather pale. "What is wrong, brother?" Thor boomed.

"I used so much magic saving Stark and then fighting. I'm just a little lightheaded," he said weakly, letting his head rest in his hands. "Don't have enough energy to muster to get you back home."

Thor stood there for a second, staring at Loki, and then his shoulders slumped. "Well, I will have to wait then," he finally said.

Tony sat down next to Loki on the warm pavement of the runway. "You did good, you know," Tony began. "You behaved like a real Avenger."

Loki looked over at him and gave him a weak but genuine smile. "You know, that is one compliment I never knew I would ever receive," he responded.

"Well, it's your lucky day," Tony chuckled, draping an arm around Loki's shoulders. "We sure kicked butt, you know." Tony noticed that the area around them was strangely Avenger-free. The rest of the gang had become very interested in something that was on the other side of the deck. Tony smiled at this.

Loki had glanced at Tony, surprised about the arm on his shoulder, but eventually relaxed into Tony's side, a small smile playing on his lips. And then he looked nervous for some reason.

"So, um…about earlier," he began slowly.

"Earlier?"

"You know, after I saved you and all."

"Oh, _earlier_."

Loki ran a nervous hand through his hair. "Yeah, I just got excited and I was energized from the magic and all," he said.

Tony stopped and frowned. "So the only reason you had for kissing me was because you were excited and high on magic? There was no other reason?" Tony asked.

"No?"

"Well, that's a little disappointing," Tony mumbled, pulling his arm off of Loki and putting both hands under his chin. He was going to play this out a little bit and see what he could get out of Loki.

"Disappointing?" Loki's face was confused.

"Yeah, I was hoping that it was something else that made you kiss me. Are you sure that those were the only reasons?"

Loki looked uncomfortable. "Well, I haven't examined the other reasons enough to be able to share them," he mumbled.

"What other reasons?" Tony asked, only half faking his curiosity.

Loki sighed. "I may have done it because… I," he began slowly, and then took a deep breath, and his next words came out in a rush. "Because I like you, Tony Stark. I like you more than I should, more than is explainable by friendship."

Tony sat there in silence for a few seconds, looking out into the clouds in contemplation. "Well, that's good," he finally said simply.

Loki turned on him, surprised. "What?"

"I said, that's good. Because then I wouldn't seem completely stupid when I tried this," he said, and then pulled a completely bewildered Loki closer to him, pressing his lips softly against Loki's. Tony had decided that he too he was way too fond of Loki than camaraderie would allow. And it just felt way too _good_ kissing him for it to be just normal friendship.

They pulled apart, and Loki stared at him with mixed emotions on his face. "Am I right when I say that I am not alone in such feelings?" Loki asked him, raising an eyebrow.

Tony shrugged. "You've hooked me, Reindeer Games," he said simply, smiling at the god sitting next to him. He placed his arm around Loki for a second time and they sat there peacefully for a while, and Tony realized he didn't want to be anywhere else at that moment. He would enjoy this while it lasted, because wherever Tony was there was always trouble, and he knew that he would tick somebody off soon, because that is just what he did when something was happy and was working.

**Purleaaase review... it makes me happy, almost as much as eating chocolate...**


	10. Bags of Cats

**I can't say I am very happy with how this chapter turned out, but here it is anyway...**

It was only a little while later that Loki had recovered enough to be able to summon enough magic to send Thor back to Asgard, and they were now standing there, about to send him home.

"Brother, I am proud of you, you know that," Thor said a little quieter than usual.

Loki just nodded, looking down at his feet. This was not the sort of treatment he was used to from Thor. Thor turned and looked at Stark, who was standing close to Loki, that small grin that was always present on his face a little larger than usual.

"And you, Stark," Thor began, turning on Stark who jumped slightly. "You shall take good care of my younger brother or I _will_ find you."

Stark brightened. "Don't worry, your precious Loki is safe with me," he said, placing a hand on Loki's shoulder.

"Good. I shall come back in a month's time to give you an update, and if I don't return in that amount of time, Loki, come back to Asgard and check in, something may have happened," Thor instructed, and Loki nodded.

A month seemed like a long time, but it was a good amount of magic that was needed to send somebody back and forth to Asgard with the Bifrost broken. With all of the sending back and forth they had been doing each of them needed some time to recover for a bit before it was viable to do it again.

"Well, this is goodbye for now, brother," Thor said, and Loki found that Thor's use of the word 'brother' didn't cause him so much pain now that he was working alongside Thor. Loki closed his eyes and sent just enough magic down his arm to where Thor's hand was clasped in his own to send Thor back home. When he opened his eyes there was no blonde god standing there anymore and he was now holding onto thin air. He let his arm drop to his side.

"Alright, everyone, let's have one more little meeting and then you can be on your way, wherever it may be," Fury told them, walking back over to his favorite conference table, a table that was now becoming a source of dread for the Avengers. It was a place for long lectures and strategic planning that none of them looked forward to.

They all sat down around it, patiently waiting for whatever Fury had to say to them. "Now that we are done with the Chitauri for a while, hopefully, you all can go home. But please keep your communicators close in case I need to contact you to call you together. You guys did very well this time, and I commend you for that. I would like a repeat performance next time."

The group around the table nodded, each of them hoping that Fury was almost done.

"Loki," Fury said, and Loki looked up, cringing slightly, expecting Fury to go at him again. "You are released from your watch. We do not need to keep surveillance on you anymore, and you can leave Stark's tower if you would like," Fury told a surprised Loki. He was not expecting this in the least, and it caught him off guard. It was a good thing that they trusted him. His life would be much easier without Fury and the rest of SHIELD off his back, but did this mean that he could not go on living in Stark Tower? It had been such a great experience living there, soaking in the normal life of humans around humans that he actually knew as opposed to complete strangers. It had been nice to have real friends for once and not friends that were his brother's that he was just tagging along with.

Stark seemed to sense Loki's distress and placed a hand over Loki's on the table. "Don't worry, you won't be kicked out of my place just because you are not a criminal anymore," Stark said, chuckling. Loki relaxed, smiling at Stark gratefully.

"Well, that is all that I have to say to you guys. Good work," Fury said with an air of finality. They would all be given a helicopter ride to Stark Tower where they would pack up their things and get transportation home by SHIELD.

Fury gave them all a wave goodbye before they stepped into the large helicopter that would fly them to Stark Tower. They all boarded, glad that this helicopter was designed for this many people as opposed to being squeezed in tightly. The pilot began to land them on the large roof of Stark Tower on Stark's instruction.

The helicopter's engines slowed to a stop and they all slowly exited. Loki felt like it was the end of something as he stepped onto the roof of Stark Tower. It was the end of his first adventure working with the Avengers, and he hoped that it wasn't his last adventure with them. He had changed a good amount in the past month, going from lonely screwed-up soul to part of a team with people who knew they could count on him. He was no longer out for revenge or angry at his fate; he was happy with what he had gotten.

Everyone chatted contently as they packed up their rooms and raked the apartment for things that might have floated across the living space in the long amount of time they had been living there. It had been fun having them all together like that, and now that they were leaving everyone was a little melancholy.

A little while later they all stood on the street corner, bags in hand, waiting for taxis that would either take them to the airport or wherever else they were headed. Rogers lived in a small apartment in New York a little distance away. Stark and Loki were there to see them off and exchange last little goodbyes.

"Well, it has been an interesting month," Banner said, smiling. "Loki, it has been nice getting to know the side of you that is not a bag of cats," he said, holding out a hand for Loki to shake.

"It's nice not getting beat up by you when you are that beast," Loki said, shaking Banner's hand, not really knowing what he meant by a bag of cats, but letting it go.

Barton finished his goodbyes with the others and turned to Loki. "Um, you turned out to be less of a jerk than I thought you were. I still think we should keep watching you, but whatever," Barton said gruffly and turned and left towards a taxi that had just pulled up. Natasha gave them all one last wave and hug and flung her bag in the trunk with Barton's, climbing in with him. They waved as the taxi pulled away.

"So, Rogers, you got a job or anything to go back to?" Stark asked Rogers.

"Well, I started working as a trainer before all of this 'revenge of the Chitauri' stuff, but I don't know if I want to do that. I may work on a police force or something."

"Well, Cap, I sure do hope you find something worthy of your American powers," Stark said lightly. Rogers did seem grateful for the sentiment, though. Another taxi pulled up and Banner said his last goodbyes and boarded. He would be going back to some random foreign country to get away from it all again, just waiting for that call that would send him back here to fight with the Avengers again.

"Hey, Steve-o, you should stop by sometime," Stark said, shaking hands with Rogers who was about to step into his own taxi. Rogers nodded.

"Yeah, I'll see you around," he told them and then stepped into his taxi. It pulled away and Loki and Stark were left on the street corner by themselves.

"It will be nice having the tower to ourselves again, won't it?" Stark asked Loki as if they had been living alone together for a long time.

"I thought you had permanent residence in California," Loki responded. Stark looked uncomfortable.

"Well, I do, but I don't really want to go back there now," he said slowly, running a hand through his hair.

"It's because of that Pepper woman, isn't it?" Loki asked calmly.

Stark froze for a second, and then nodded forlornly. "She is my assistant, a great one that I have had for years, and then we got into a romantic relationship that worked for a while, and then I screwed up. I don't know what that makes us now."

Loki felt something odd within him. "Do you still have feelings for her?" Loki asked directly, wanting to get right to the source of the problem here.

Stark tilted his head to the side in thought. "Well, she has been the only one I could count on for years and years, and when we were together I really thought it would work. But now I know that we were meant to be friends and not anything more. I would like to go back to being friends, but she is still very angry at me."

They walked back to the building in silence for a little while, each man in deep in their own thoughts. Loki wondered if he needed to worry about this woman that knew Stark so well. Was she somebody that had the power to steal Stark away from him now that he had just become Loki's? Loki was unaccustomed to these feelings. Loki was very inexperienced in the dating world. When he was younger there hadn't been many women clamoring for him, especially when they could go for Thor, the blonde muscular one. Loki had been odd anyways, somebody that people tolerated because he was Odin's son. Well, that had sure changed when he had decided to become a villain of sorts.

They boarded the elevator and Stark turned to him. "You know, you have no reason to be worried about me going back to her," Stark said, completely seeing through Loki to his feelings yet again.

Loki just sighed. "I am sorry if I come across wrong, I am just not used to this, especially with a human," he said, shaking his head. The elevator doors opened on the apartment level and they walked out of the elevator.

Stark walked over to the kitchen and grabbed two glasses from a cupboard, pouring a healthy amount of some sort of human alcohol in each. "You do not need to worry," he said as he handed Loki a glass. "I already know what you are like. If I didn't like you or your Asgardian customs or how you interact with humans then I wouldn't be with you, now would I?"

Stark held up his glass. "To the Avengers, saving the day, and trying new things," he said. Loki held up his glass as well, and then they both took a swig. The liquid burned as it went down his throat. It was far stronger than most other drinks he had had before, and it made his head buzz a little bit.

"Hey, what do you say we go on a real d_ate_?" Stark said happily. "You know, nice dinner, I'll drive you there in my car, and then when the date is over I'll drive you home to your protective father and we'll kiss on the doorstep before he catches us and tells me to leave his only daughter alone."

Loki finally caught on and frowned at Stark, which only made the billionaire laugh harder. "I will agree to your little 'date' idea as long as you lay off of the jokes at my expense," Loki said to Stark, who smiled like a little kid.

"She said yes!" he yelped, twirling in a circle. "She said yes!"

Loki glared at him. "What did I just say?"

Stark stopped and smiled sheepishly. He looked at his watch. "Well, it is about five o' clock now. What do you say to dinner at six? It will give us some time to get ready and all," Stark said.

Loki nodded, and Stark finished his drink, set it down on the counter, and left for his room to get ready. Loki also drained his drink, cringed, and then walked to his room. Now, what did one wear on a date? Loki looked down at the armor he was still wearing from the battle. No, this was not what he would wear.

Loki found himself standing in the full-length mirror in his bedroom for quite some time, changing his outfit so many times that they all started to look the same in his eyes. And then he realized that his normal human outfit would do perfectly; his nice black overcoat with a patterned vest underneath, paired with a white dress shirt and black tie. It was a sharp look, and one that Loki pulled off very well, why change it?

He fiddled with his hair for a few minutes, wondering if he could do something different with the spikes in the back, but then deciding that he pulled those off great too. And when you had magic at your fingertips you could always smell nice. Loki made sure that he always had just a hint of minty-ness about him; a clean smell that Thor never had. Thor always smelled like he either just exercised or was wearing fine cologne that burned your nose.

"Hey, you ready to go, diva?" he heard Stark call from outside. He grumbled, but in reality Loki did enjoy Stark's humor. It had a very lightening effect on his mood.

He walked into the living room to find that Stark was wearing a black jacket over a wine red dress shirt paired with a black tie. His normally mussed black hair was controlled with a little gel, swept from his hairline back. He really did look dashing.

Stark looked him up and down. "I have not seen you in that getup in quite some time," he finally said. "And I forgot how good you look in it."

The corners of Loki's mouth curled up slightly and he tilted his head to one side. "That is why I wear it."

"Well, let's roll. I just put in dinner reservations at a restaurant that I go to all the time. It's not too far from here, but we do not want to be late, they will give our table away."

And with that they left Stark Tower.

**Please review! **


	11. A Few Firsts

**Well, here goes nothing...**

Tony was very happy with how the night was going so far. Loki seemed relatively impressed with the restaurant and seemed to like the dish that Tony had recommended he try. They had talked about many things, this time remembering what they were talking about as opposed to the first time they had dinner and together and had gotten hammered. It was peaceful, almost like they were two normal people that were spending time together and enjoying each other's company. Except that Loki was not at all normal, which made things a lot more interesting, which Tony loved. He was somebody who got bored with situations quickly, and now that the 'situation' involved Loki there was no boredom to be found.

They had finished dinner and then taken a taxi home, sitting close in the back seat together. This taxi driver was a little calmer than most, which added up to make the night even more perfect. Tony kept catching Loki staring at him with a small smile on his face and then looking out the window when he saw that Tony was looking at him. Tony smiled to himself at this, and allowed himself to steal a few glances at Loki. Now that Tony had accepted his attraction to Loki he was able to really appreciate Loki's appearance and how much Tony liked it. Yes, he really liked the way Loki looked; the bright green eyes, the wide smile, the dark hair that looked so good in its spiked style, the sharp chin. He had a very godly appearance about him, not at all like Thor's godly appearance, but the more mysterious, quietly powerful appearance.

The taxi stopped on the street corner and Loki and Tony stepped out, the brisk air hitting them harshly. Tony wrapped his jacket around him a little tighter and walked quicker to get into the building, tugging Loki along with him.

The odd pair was very quiet as they made their way into the elevator and up to the apartment level. The apartment was dark when they stepped into it.

"Hey, JARVIS, turn on some lights, would you?" Tony asked, and the lights were promptly switched on. He turned to say something to Loki and was surprised at how close Loki had gotten to him when his back was turned. He never got the chance to say anything, though. Loki had lunged at him, grabbing him by the collar and pressing his lips tightly to Tony's.

He pulled back, a smile on his face. "You know, I wanted to do that all night, but couldn't get up the courage. Now I wish I would have," he said softly.

"I wish you would have too," Tony chuckled closing the tiny distance between them and kissing the god with much more vigor than before. Loki gave a low growl in the back of his throat and Tony felt chills of longing run through him. It was amazing what one little sound could do to someone.

Tony pushed Loki back onto the couch, lying on him like he had the first time they had kissed; though this time he knew what he was doing instead of just falling over, drunk. Loki had fisted a hand in Tony's hair and the other was still tight on Tony's collar. They pulled apart to catch their breath for a few seconds, and they were both breathing raggedly.

Loki looked Tony up and down. "You know, I think you are entirely overdressed for this occasion," he said, a mischievous smile curving on his lips.

Tony raised an eyebrow. "You definitely have more layers on than I do," he countered, tugging on Loki's vest that he wore under his jacket. Tony pulled his weight off of Loki for a second to allow him to remedy said issue. Soon he was down to his dress shirt and tie. Tony had also taken off his jacket per Loki's demands and Loki was now working furiously at his tie.

"Yeah, um, God of Mischief, are you sure you are ready for whatever this is headed to?" Tony asked as Loki growled at his tie that was not wanting to come undone.

Loki looked up at him in surprise. "Of course I am, otherwise I would not have started such activities with such earnest. In fact, I have been ready for this for a while and was waiting for you to jump aboard."

Tony blinked a few times. "What?" he managed.

"I have liked you quite some time now, and you are just now realizing it. For a man that is such a playboy you really do not know true affection when it is standing right in front of you and saving your life with magic."

Tony just lay there for a few moments, soaking this in. "Well then, your room or mine?" Tony was not one to wait on things when it came to relationships. No, things moved quickly when you were with Tony Stark. It was actually quite a happening if he managed to ask you if you were ready.

They soon found themselves with a little less clothing and lying on Tony's bed. He was still on top of Loki, having pushed him forcefully on the bed and pouncing on him. Loki had finally gotten Tony's tie undone and his shirt was now more than half unbuttoned.

"You know, you don't strike me as the kind of person to lie there and accept being on the bottom," Tony said offhandedly as Loki kissed the crook of his neck. He felt a smile curve on the lips that were pressed to him.

"Oh, I was just waiting for you to mention it," Loki hissed, and in a feat of strength that Tony did not know he had Loki had flipped Tony around and perched on top of him in one fluid motion. There was a wicked grin on his face, one that made Tony shiver.

"Whoa," Tony mumbled as Loki continued his kissing of Tony's neck. Tony had woven his fingers in Loki's hair and found that it was extremely soft, and when he stuck his nose by Loki's ear he found that it smelled _good._ Minty, if he didn't know better.

Loki had stopped and Tony felt fingers tracing lightly around his arc reactor, and the sensation was one that Tony had never felt before. It wasn't like he hadn't had anybody touch him there; it was just that the amount of care that was being exhibited in those touches was overwhelming. Tony realized in a flash that Loki could easily kill him right now, in so many different ways if he wanted to, but Tony did not feel any fear at all. He knew that Loki was completely safe to him right now. Loki would not hurt him; why would he have saved his life earlier that day if he had wanted Tony dead?

"You know, there are some perks to being with a god," Loki said, fingering a button of Tony's shirt absentmindedly.

"Yeah, can't you just snap your fingers and make our clothes disappear? I was wondering why you haven't done that yet."

Loki smiled and kissed him deeply. "Yes, that and much more," he said dangerously, and then he snapped his fingers.

XxX

Tony woke up in a slight daze, not really sure where he was for a moment as there were so many conflicting sensations. He looked around and knew immediately that he was in his own bed, but the last time he slept there, there decidedly hadn't been a Norse god in bed with him.

Loki was lying behind him, thin arms wrapped protectively around Tony's stomach, chin resting in the crook of his neck, keeping him pressed against the god. And there was a distinct absence of clothing in this scenario as well. He remembered all of the details from the night before in a flash, fitting different events to the places that he was sore.

Tony smiled. Yes, that had been a fun night, and one that he would remember for quite some time. It had been a first in a few different ways, and Tony sure hoped that it wasn't going to be a last. Tony settled deeper into the warmth of the god behind him and closed his eyes peacefully. It was still very early judging by the sparse amount of light filtering through his window, and Tony wanted to enjoy this moment while it lasted.

"Sir, there is-" JARVIS began, but was interrupted by a sharp knock on the door.

"Tony, can I talk to you?" Pepper Potts asked through the door. Loki was stirring and had let go of Tony, stretching, when Pepper knocked again.

Tony scrambled out of the bed and began throwing clothing on quickly. He turned to the rapidly waking Loki. "You better put clothing on and hide," Tony hissed at him. Loki nodded, snapped his fingers, which dressed him in normal clothing, and then transported out of the bedroom. Well, that would work too.

Once Tony was dressed in proper sleepwear he opened the door casually, faking a yawn. "Hello, Pepp, what brings you here?" he asked leaning on the doorframe.

Pepper rolled her eyes. "Believe it or not, I missed you," she said softly.

Tony coughed and scratched his head. "Well, I kinda missed you too," he mumbled.

"Well, good," Pepper said shortly, and then stepped closer to Tony and kissed him desperately, and he could feel tears on her face. Just. Great.

Tony pulled away from her, holding his hands out in front of him like a barrier. "Oh, Pepper, we really, really need to talk," he said softly, wondering just how he would explain the fact that he was currently in a relationship with a god that she still knew to be completely evil and murderous.

"Well, yes," she said shrugging. "But I am pretty sure your complete big-headedness is a permanent fixture."

Tony looked awkwardly at his feet. "Yeah, not about that."

Pepper looked worried. "What did you do this time?"

There was a crash from the living room area. Pepper's eyebrows skyrocketed.

Tony followed her out into the main living space to find Loki sprawled over an upended side table with a newly broken lamp. "My transportation has gone a little askew," he mumbled, getting to his feet and brushing glass off of himself.

Pepper turned to Tony. "He is still living with you?" she asked.

"Well, yes," Tony said sheepishly, as if she was a mother that had just found out that he had blown up something else in the house.

"Yeah, Tony, you are going to need to do some explaining," she said, crossing her arms.

Loki had set the table back on its legs and waved a hand. The lamp was now in one piece again and there was no more glass littering the floor. He sat down on the couch, hands in lap, waiting patiently for whatever it was that was going to happen to happen. Tony suspected that he was a little too eager to see Tony get an ass-kicking.

Tony gestured to the chair across from the couch. "Pepper, you might want to sit down. I have some major explaining to do."

Pepper sat down expectantly. Tony sat down and took a deep breath. Well, he was definitely screwed.

**Please review if you know what is good for you... Is it bad that I like threatening my readers so much? ;)**


	12. The Crap of Tony

**Behold! Another chapter! Enjoy...**

It took Stark quite some time to explain the situation that they were currently in to Pepper, who just sat there with an emotionless expression on her face. It was this emotionless expression that really worried Loki. Anger was okay, and even sadness, but you really had to watch out for a complete lack of emotions. Stark took his time, gently explaining anything to do with his and Loki's relationship to Pepper, trying to help her understand what was going on. He explained everything from when she left to Loki saving Stark's life to the Avengers working on getting rid of the Chitauri. He showed her how his arc reactor now glowed green thanks to Loki's help. It was a grueling process, and Loki could tell that he was really worried and he really did care what she thought.

"And that is why he is still here with me," Stark finished, exhaling in relief that it was all out and off of his chest.

Pepper stood up, looking from Stark to Loki, her expression still clear, and then she hid her face in her hands with a dry sob. Stark stood up hurriedly and went up to her.

"Tony, don't you dare touch me," she growled, removing her hands from her face to show that she was angry.

Stark froze, not knowing what he should do next. "Pepper, I-"

"No, don't," she said sharply, pointing a finger at him. "There is always something with you. Something new that I have to cope with, something that is completely outrageous that I just go along with and tell you that it is not outrageous. Well, I am tired of it."

Loki stood up slowly, wanting to help but not knowing how.

"Pepper, you have never seen it from my point of view. You don't know what it is like," Stark said to her, fists clenching at his sides.

"And Tony, you have never seen it from my point of view. Do you ever once think of me when you get mixed up in stuff like this? Ever?"

"I would like to tell you, Ms. Pepper, that all of this is not entirely Stark's fault," Loki said softly. Pepper rounded on him and he stepped back a tiny bit.

"And what are you trying to get out of this? Tony may be too blind to see it, but you are definitely up to something," she said to him, her eyes narrowing in hatred and distrust.

Loki held up his hands in surrender. "I am not trying to get anything out of it," he mumbled, his sliver tongue leaving him. He felt suddenly and terribly alone under this ferocious woman's glares and accusations. She made him feel like he was doing something wrong, ruining something that had worked, which Loki realized he kind of had. If he had not pushed his way into Stark's life then maybe these two would be back together and happy.

"I don't know what sort of sick production you two have going on here, but I want out of it," she hissed, and she turned to leave. Stark grabbed her arm.

"Pepper, wait," he said urgently. "Maybe if you just took some time to actually get to know Loki you would understand. I am picky when it comes to the people I hang out with, you know that, so maybe if you just saw things from my point of view?"

Pepper was glaring at him, and even Loki could see the cogs turning in her brain, trying to figure out what the right thing to do was. "How do I know he won't just kill the both of us?" she asked.

"Pepper, he saved my life and then helped to get rid of the same aliens that he had brought in the last time. Fury even trusts him now. Isn't that enough?"

"How do I know that he isn't mind-controlling you? You could just be one of his mindless minions, telling me all of this stuff because he told you to."

Loki stepped in at this point. "There are a few reasons that make it impossible for him to be under my control right now. First, I do not have the scepter with the tesseract power; that is the only way that I was able to control people. Second, his eyes would be bright blue if he was under my power, and that is definitely not that case. Third, I was not able to hypnotize him when I tried it back the first time I was here on Earth. His arc reactor makes it impossible."

Pepper just stood there, arms crossed, trying to figure out what to do. They had given her a really hard decision, and Loki could tell that she did really truly care for Stark and that she wanted to do what was best for him. She sagged in defeat.

"Tony, I cannot begin to fathom what goes on in that brain of yours, but I don't think I will be able to be around you right now when all of this is so fresh to me. I need some time to soak this all in," she said, her voice quavering slightly.

Stark nodded, grateful that she wasn't extremely mad anymore and seemed willing to try to make things work.

"I will call you when I think I am ready to see you again and we can meet somewhere," she said quietly, kissing Tony softly on the cheek, and they could see the tears in her eyes.

She walked across the room, her heels clicking on the floor, and boarded the elevator, and the doors closed with a ding of finality.

Stark sat down on the couch in weariness. "Well, that went better than I thought it would," he mumbled, head in hands. "I was sure that she would kill either you or me or both."

Loki sat down next to him in silence, and they both sat in thought for a few minutes. "You know, that woman has built up quite the 'Tony Stark preparation' kit. She handled it quite well for someone she has known for quite so long," Loki said.

"Pepper has had to deal with so much of my crap," Stark responded softly. "It just sucks that now that there is something this important she still thinks that it is more of my crap."

Loki nodded, not knowing how he should comfort Stark, and then deciding that the billionaire was not one that really needed comforting, he liked to handle his emotions on his own.

Loki decided he would go and make some tea, just to give himself something to do. He walked over to the kitchen and realized that Stark was more of a coffee drinker, so maybe he should make him a cup. Was that something that was seen as comforting to a person who had emotional distress? He wondered if he would be able to figure out the coffee machine.

He walked over to the machine and stared at it for a few seconds, wondering if someone could die by using it wrong. He then remembered Stark talking to the AI, who had started brewing the coffee just by one little command. He wondered if it would listen to him.

"Uh, hello, robot-voice JARVIS. Would you start brewing coffee for Stark?" Loki asked awkwardly, not knowing if he was doing it right.

"Under the present circumstances it does seem necessary, so I will start brewing coffee," the AI responded, and the coffee machine turned on and started brewing. Loki smiled at his own achievement.

Then Loki found the tea and heated a mug of hot water in the microwave, which he had figured out much faster than Thor had. The microwave was brand new after Thor had destroyed the previous one, and it was very easy to use. Loki placed the tea bag in the mug and waited patiently for the tea and coffee to be ready. When the coffee machine beeped he grabbed the pot and poured a good amount into a mug for Stark and was about to take it over to him when he wondered if he had seen Stark putting anything else in his coffee. He had watched Stark make the coffee many a morning when they had both woken up early.

No, Stark was one that liked his coffee black. It was only on an extremely rare occasion that Stark would put one packet of sugar in it, and maybe a little creamer. Loki found a packet of sugar and stirred it into the coffee. Stark was down in the dumps and sugar was a great way to pull him out.

Loki walked over to the couch, two mugs in hand, and held out the cup of coffee for Stark to take. He looked up appreciatively.

"Thanks," he said, taking the cup and taking a small sip. He smiled. "You actually managed to make a great cup of coffee. Thor would have blown up the coffee machine," Stark said to him, taking a larger sip now that he knew it was safe.

"I just told your JARVIS to brew it and then added a little sugar because I figured you needed it," Loki responded, sitting on the couch. "And yes, Thor would have either blown up the coffee machine or would have tried to use it to hit somebody with. Unlike him I have a slight grasp on human technologies."

"Obviously you do, otherwise you would not have been able to save me," Stark responded, looking up from his cup and at Loki.

"Speaking of which, are you going to repair your arc reactor? It does still have a rather large crack in it," Loki said curiously.

Stark shrugged. "I don't know. It has unlimited power now, and I don't see why I should waste that," he said.

"Well, you could always just replace the glass in the front instead of the whole thing. The magic will stay in there unless you remove the power source," Loki said. "And you do not want the glass to fall out."

Stark nodded. "Yeah, I'll do that later." He took another large sip of coffee. He looked up at Loki as if remembering something. "Hey, what was up with your teleportation thing?" he asked.

Loki shook his head. "I have no idea. I wanted to go into my bedroom, and usually it happens much faster than it did, but it was almost like I got caught in between realities, and then came out in the wrong place. And I was completely off balance," Loki explained, remembering the slight panic that being caught in limbo had given him, and then painfully landing on that lamp.

"Hmm…" Stark responded, looking into his glass. "Well, I think we should go back down into the lab today. I want to look into this magic some more," he said, gesturing at his arc reactor. He stood up and headed towards the kitchen. Loki stood up to follow him, but his head began to swim and he lost balance, sitting heavily back down on the couch. He felt clammy and weak, and his vision was swimming everywhere. He placed his head in his hands to try to restore some sort of order.

Stark had turned and was looking at him with a worried expression. "You okay?"

Loki took a deep breath, willing himself to try again. He stood up, and this time he was only slightly dizzy. He nodded slowly, keeping a firm hand gripped on the armrest of the couch. "Just a little disoriented," he mumbled, finally following Stark to head down to the workshop.

"You better tell me if there is something wrong, because I do not want to catch some awful Asgardian disease," Stark said, eyeing Loki out of the corner of his eye. Loki just smiled at him halfheartedly as they stepped out of the elevator.

Loki really hoped that his dizziness didn't have anything to do with the bad transportation earlier. He hoped that it was just tiredness or something unimportant. He hoped that it would not return.

**Review or I shall stab you to death with the nearest dull pencil I can find. Or a spoon... Bwa-ha-ha...**


	13. A Freezer

**Alright, I just thought I would settle an issue that I didn't even know was an issue: LOKI IS NOT PREGNANT. Now that that's cleared up we can go back to our regularly scheduled programming...enjoy**

Loki was explaining something about the way magic worked, his hands moving as he spoke in those clear tones, and his green eyes sparkling with excitement. He was something to watch, and Tony found himself staring, only sort of listening to what was actually being said.

"And that is why your arc reactor technology is very close to the type of magic that we use," Loki finished, sitting back in the desk chair. Tony plugged a few things into his database to go over later on. Yes, he was going to figure out just how to unlock this magic, because if he was currently running on unlimited power in his arc reactor then it was something that should be looked into.

They had already replaced the glass on the front of Tony's arc reactor, and he couldn't help but marvel at the beautiful way the green shone out from the center of the device. He had totally gotten used to the blue under his shirt, but now that it was green it kept catching his eye. There was something quite interesting about having magic of Loki's keeping you alive. Cool, but almost frightening.

"So, when you want to teleport what do you do? Do you imagine where you want to go or there like secret words or something?" Tony asked Loki, who had become interested in something that he had found on the computer. He had mastered it rather quickly and was navigating through the files at a rapid pace, soaking in the knowledge and moving on.

Loki looked up, smiling. "No, there is not some secret word that I say. I just imagine the place that I want to be, close my eyes, and then let a little magic flow down my body," Loki explained. "I can also take people with me or send people different places."

"Ooh, send me to the other end of the shop!" Tony said eagerly.

Loki chuckled. "It really isn't that fun, but okay." He stood up and walked up to Tony. "You might want to stand up."

Tony stood, and Loki took his hand. "This might tingle a little bit," Loki said, and then closed his eyes. Nothing happened, and when Loki opened his eyes again there was an expression of confusion on his face.

"Everything all right?" Tony asked.

"Yes, but I just can't seem to-" his eyes shut again, and Tony had to lunge out and catch Loki before he completely toppled over. Tony helped the pale god sit back down in the chair.

"Loki, what is going on?" Tony asked, his voice filled with worry.

Loki had to take a deep breath before he was able to speak again. "I don't know. Something is wrong with my magic, and I keep getting really dizzy," he mumbled in a hoarse voice, his eyebrows knit in confusion. "I really don't know what is going on. It has never happened before."

Tony placed the back of his hand on Loki's forehead. He was ice cold, as opposed to feverish, and Tony could see him shivering.

"Alright, we need to get you up in your bed, mister," Tony said, and he helped Loki to his feet. They made slow progress up into the apartment floor, and Loki had to lean heavily on Tony to keep from falling over. They made it to Loki's room, and Tony pulled back the covers, helping Loki into the bed and then pulling the covers back over top of him. Loki was still shivering violently.

"Here, let me go find some more blankets," Tony said, and walked quickly out into the hall to find extra blankets. What was going on with Loki, and how did it just start happening so suddenly? Tony was really worried. Loki was far from anyone else who knew about magic and would be able to cure him, and if Loki had never before heard of what was going on with him, then that meant that it could possibly be really dangerous.

He found a large stack of blankets in a random closet and walked briskly back to Loki's room. Loki's eyes were closed and his breathing was even. Had he possibly fallen asleep? Tony unfolded a few blankets and draped them over top of the sickly god gently. He then felt Loki's forehead again with the back of his hand. If possible, Loki's temperature had dropped even more and it almost burned Tony's hand. Tony knew that Loki was an ice giant, but was it natural for him to be cold when he was in this more human-looking form? Considering he was still shivering slightly Tony thought not.

How else could he warm the god up? There was the whole warm water bottle thing, he could turn up the heating in the room, or he could directly warm up Loki with a little body heat. That would work faster than any of the other ways. Tony just sincerely hoped that he wouldn't catch whatever it was that Loki had. Well, they had been pretty close last night, and if whatever it was that Loki had was contagious he would already be contaminated. And Tony figured this had something to do with magic, which Tony didn't directly have or use.

First, Tony went over to the room's thermostat and turned up the heat, very happy that he had individual thermostats for each room that worked very quickly. Then Tony pulled back the covers and tucked in next to Loki, being careful not to jolt him as he situated himself on the bed. He wrapped his arms around Loki, pressing as much of himself against the god as he could. Jeez, Loki was _freezing_, and Tony shivered at the contact. Loki had opened one eye slightly, looking over at Tony with an eyebrow raised halfheartedly.

"You are freezing cold, I'm just trying to warm you up," Tony explained softly, and Loki just nodded feebly.

"Thanks, Stark," Loki rasped, his eyes closing again.

They lay like that for a while longer, and Tony started to feel a little heat coming back into Loki's body. He was not a freezer anymore; he was merely a rather cold human. So, the body heat-thing had been a good idea after all.

Tony searched through his brain, trying to remember all the things that people needed to do when they were sick. Ah yes, fluids were important, lots of fluids. Tony could do that. And maybe he would prepare Loki some hot soup. That should warm him up even more than Tony's body heat would.

Tony pulled himself gently out of the bed and walked out to the kitchen to find water and soup. A few burned fingers and spilt bowls of soup later Tony had successfully managed to make a rather nice bowl of chicken noodle. He brought it back into Loki to find that he was sitting up in bed, arms curled around himself, shivering heavily despite the now stifling air in the room.

"Oh, hey, here," Tony said, moving quickly to the side of the bed, tray with soup on it in hand. "Eat this, it should warm you up," he said, setting the tray down on Loki's lap and handing him a spoon.

Loki took the spoon in his hand and glanced at the soup apprehensively, wary of Tony's cooking abilities.

"Just eat it, it's canned anyways," Tony said, smiling despite himself.

Loki glanced once more back at Tony, and then took a small spoonful of soup in his mouth. He shrugged his shoulders slightly. "Not bad," he said softly.

Tony sat the water on the nightstand and parked himself in the chair in the corner of the room, wanting to stay near Loki in case things progressed to something worse, which they were bound to do if this sickness was anything like a human one.

The warm air in the room had a very lulling effect, and after a few minutes of sitting in the silence of the dark room in the comfortable chair Tony fell asleep, head lolling on his shoulder.

He woke a while later to find that Loki had also fallen asleep, curled up under the blankets. Tony stood up for a closer check on the sickly god. Loki was not shivering, but when Tony placed his hand near Loki's forehead he could feel the chill coming off of him. He was even colder than before. When Tony placed his hand against Loki's forehead he was quite surprised by the green sparks that jumped up his arm and settled somewhere in his arc reactor, causing a painful shock to go through him. He stepped back quickly, wondering what had just happened. And every time he touched Loki after that it just happened again, even when he touched Loki through an article of clothing. No, this wasn't good at all.

Loki's temperature was steadily dropping, and he needed body heat to get better. Tony figured that this sickness had something to do with the magic Loki had used to save Tony and how much he had summoned, and Tony was currently hosting that magic. Now that the sickness had gotten worse the magic was starting to affect Loki, and Tony touching him caused a sort of electrical reaction.

Tony had an idea, but it would require courage and possibly some groveling, but if it was going to save Loki then it was worth it. Tony went and found his cellphone, hit the first number on speed dial and waited while it started ringing.

"What is it, Tony?" Pepper asked from the other end irritably.

"Pepper, I really need your help. It's a bit of an emergency," Tony said urgently.

"An emergency? Oh god, Tony, did Loki finally carry out his evil plan on you? Are you dying?" she asked worriedly.

"Not exactly," responded Tony. "But if you do not come quickly Loki may die."

There was silence on the other end for a few moments, and then her voice came in, quieter than before. "Okay, Tony, I'm coming," she said, and then hung up.

Tony hated that he was going to have to ask her to do this, but when he glanced over at the too-still Loki curled on the bed he knew it was necessary. _Oh dear lord, Pepper, you better hurry up._

XxX

"What's wrong with him?" Pepper inquired as they walked towards Loki's bedroom.

"I don't know exactly, but it has something to do with the magic that he summoned to save me," Tony replied. "His body temperature has been dropping steadily, and I was able to keep it up with my body heat a little earlier, but now some sort of magic is coming off of him that is reacting badly with my arc reactor."

Pepper stopped in her tracks. "What do you need me to do?" she asked warily.

Tony took a deep breath. "He needs body heat, Pepper, and I cannot help him without nearly shocking myself to death."

"Oh god, Tony, are you really expecting me to do that?" she asked him.

Tony shook his head sadly. "I wouldn't be asking if it wasn't absolutely necessary. And he is completely safe, especially in the state he is in right now. There is no way that he could hurt you."

"I really need to get a new job," she mumbled, and continued walking toward the bedroom. Tony sagged in relief. She was going to help.

The next few minutes were pretty awkward, even though Loki was still fast asleep. Tony sat in the chair in the corner of the room, wondering who was going to kill who first. Pepper slowly took off her high heels and set them next to the bed, milking the time it took to do that for all it was worth. She slowly pulled back the covers and climbed in slowly next to Loki, cringing at how cold he was.

"You're right, Tony," she whispered. "He really does need heat." She slowly and gently wrapped her arms around the sleeping god and pulled herself nearer. They stayed like that for a little while, the room completely silent other than Loki's deep breathing.

"I think this is helping," Pepper whispered to Tony. "He's not as cold anymore."

"Thank you so much, Pepp," Tony responded, so glad that he was able to count on Pepper to help him, even if she did happen to be angry at him. If she hadn't of been there to help Loki might have died from freezing to death, even if he was a frost giant.

That was about when Loki woke up, his eyes widening in confusion and panic.

**Review...**


	14. Team Tony

**I just want to tell you all how thankful I am for all of my great readers and reviewers. Thank you for sticking with me and keeping up all of the great feeback! Please enjoy this chapter I baked fresh for you!**

Loki had never been so cold in his whole life. Being a frost giant most cold felt normal to him, and when he was using his ice powers it just felt a little tingly, not at all cold. Well, whatever sickness he had gotten was stealing all of his heat, and he was miserable. It had helped a good amount when Stark had tried to warm him up with body heat and he had fallen asleep comfortably.

The soup had also helped a little bit, and it did make him feel a little less weak and helpless, but then without any other source of heat he had gotten extremely cold and fell into an unconscious state. His dreams were feverish and filled with the odd sensation of being afloat on a river of magic that was taking him somewhere fast and he had no way of helping himself. He felt trapped in his own consciousness with no way to get out of the tundra that was his body. It was like Hell had frozen over.

He had stayed like that for quite some time, freezing to what felt like death, but then it had gradually eased up. He fell into a more comfortable, lighter sleep until something had woken him up.

He opened his eyes and found himself to be very confused. Somebody was wrapped around him and it was not Stark like he thought it would be. It was a strange woman. It was that Pepper woman.

Loki went from confusion to surprise in under a second and let out a strangled cry, backpedaling away from Pepper as fast as he could. She was also very surprised and jumped out of the bed at full speed. Why in the world was she in bed with him? Many possible reasons for her being there flitted through his head, each one making less sense than the last.

Stark had come to the side of the bed, holding out his hands and trying to calm the whole situation down. "Loki! It's alright; she was just trying to warm you up!" Stark said. His voice sounded as if it was coming through a pane of glass, and everything was a little fuzzy around the edges. Curse this blasted sickness.

Loki looked at the both of them in suspicion. "Why weren't you the one doing it? You were warming me up before," Loki said, trying to calm his rapidly beating heart.

"I'll show you," Stark said, and then he reached out to Loki and touched him on the arm. Loki felt an odd spark of magic flow up at the contact, and Stark jerked back from him, cringing. "Your magic is attacking my arc reactor every time I try to touch you, so I had to get Pepper to warm you up. You might have died otherwise."

"Alright, well," Loki responded, leaning back against the headboard in exhaustion from just that little movement across the bed. This sickness really had come out of nowhere very quickly, and Loki had gone from just a little dizzy one minute to completely bedridden. He had to admit that her body heat had helped him. He had indeed felt like he was almost dying before he had started warming up. But at least now that he was awake and moving slightly he was not as cold. In fact, he felt better in the temperature department.

"Do you want some more soup or something?" Stark asked him, picking up the empty bowl from a few hours ago. The mere thought of food had Loki's stomach turning painfully, and a few seconds later he was staggering to the bathroom and emptying the contents of his stomach into the toilet.

He felt Stark pull his hair off of his neck and out of the way and hand him a wet towel to wipe his face. He took it gratefully. "Ugh, I hate this," Loki murmured after he had rinsed out his mouth with water.

"Well, we all get sick sometimes," Stark said, shrugging. "And it does suck."

"Those of us on Asgard don't usually get sick," Loki responded, trying to remember a time when any of them had actually gotten sick. The only thing he could think of was Odin falling into Odinsleep, and that couldn't have been as painful as what Loki was going through now.

"You guys never get sick?" Pepper asked from the bedroom, now sitting in the chair that Stark had gotten up from.

"We are gods, therefore we do not get sick," Loki said simply, and then threw up in the toilet for the second time in so many minutes.

XxX

Tony and Pepper left the room once Loki had fallen asleep again. He seemed to be past the 'feverish' faze and just felt terrible now.

"Tony, I'm really sorry you have to deal with this," Pepper said to Tony, sitting down on the couch.

Tony put his head in his hands. "I'm just worried that it's something really bad; that he's going to lose his magic or something like that," Tony said softly.

Pepper sat on the couch next to him. "You know, Tony, I can tell that you really care for him, and if that is really the case, then I have no right to tell you not to feel the way you feel," she said slowly.

Tony looked up at her, surprise written on his face. "That really means a lot to me, Pepp," he responded. "I am sorry that things had to work out between us the way they did. I'm sorry that I am such a jerk."

Pepper just shook her head. "You just say what is on your mind, and that is not always a bad thing." They sat there in silence for some time. "You know, once he has gotten better I would like to get to know Loki a little more and see what the fuss is about," Pepper said, smiling.

Tony smiled back at her. "It will be interesting to see which one of you kills the other one first," he said lightly, running a hand through his tousled hair making it stick up even more.

Pepper narrowed her eyes. "I thought you were insistent that he wouldn't kill me? Now you're telling me that we are going to have a battle to the death?"

Tony looked up, his trademark grin on his face. "I said he wouldn't kill you if you weren't doing anything wrong to him. I never said he wouldn't kill you when provoked. He is the god of chaos and mischief."

"Tony, what is it with you and seeking out danger and trouble?"

Tony smiled even wider. "I like danger and trouble, and he is currently sleeping in that bed in there," he said, pointing to Loki's bedroom.

"You know Tony, you are the last person I would've expected to be gay," she said, getting a little bit more serious.

Tony appeared to ponder this. "Well, I don't think I am gay," he said finally.

Pepper raised an eyebrow. "And falling in love with men makes you completely straight?"

Tony shook his head. "I never said I was completely straight. I just like women too much to be gay. I think I play for both teams, personally. Or I am just on my own team. You know, 'Team Tony'," he blabbered a bit, using his fingers to make a 't' and holding it up to his forehead.

Pepper rolled her eyes and stood up off of the couch, walking into the kitchen to grab a bottle of water from the fridge. She leaned against the bar and took a large swig. "Good to know that you finally found your true spot, though," she finally responded.

"Yeah, and I really do like this spot," Tony said, glancing at the door to Loki's bedroom. "I just hope that this spot is going to be okay."

XxX

Over the next few days Loki's condition did not get any better, and Tony began to worry, constantly pacing and not getting a lick of sleep. Pepper stayed with him, helping out with Loki and giving Tony the moral support that he needed, because no matter how many times he denied that the amazing Tony Stark didn't need moral support, he really did.

Pepper could see that Tony really cared for the god that was currently sick, the way he looked at him when they were in the room, the way that they talked to each other when Loki was awake, and the way that Tony spoke of him. If you were someone that didn't know Tony you wouldn't think that he cared at all, but Pepper had known Tony for a very long time and she could tell that Tony was infatuated with this god of mischief.

Pepper also kept hearing Tony talking to himself in low tones, and she could tell it was all ideas about how to help Loki. She kept hearing 'magic' and 'Asgard' and 'Thor might know'. The brilliant Tony Stark was looking for help from an outside source. Unfortunately this outside source was so far away that it was impossible to get to it without using magic, and the only source of magic that Tony had available to him was currently very sick because of said magic.

Pepper really wished she knew how to help, but magic and sicknesses were way out of her expertise. "Hey, Tony, is there a way to open a sort of communication with As-god-thingy?" she asked Tony.

Tony shook his head forlornly, and then paused. He stood up off the barstool that he was currently sitting on and walked towards Loki's bedroom. Pepper followed him into the room and saw that Loki was sitting up in the bed with his head back on the headboard and his eyes closed.

"Loki?" Tony said. Loki opened his eyes and smiled weakly at Tony. His face was extremely pale and his hair hung lankly around his face, not even close to the armored god that had come out of the portal those long months ago.

"Come to tell me that I only have a few more days to live?" he asked dryly.

Tony shook his head. "No, I came to ask you a question. It really was Pepper's idea," he responded.

"Alright, go ahead."

"Is there any source of communication that you Asgardians use to talk to one another when you are not on the same realm?" Tony asked Loki, who sat there in silence for a few seconds, thinking.

"Well, there is one way that I know of. We don't use it very often because you can only get a few words in to each other before the connection breaks, and you need magic on both ends to do it, but it is possible."

Tony nodded, deep in thought. "Do you know if I could use the magic that is currently in my arc reactor to establish a connection with Thor? You know, to see if he can get you back home and heal you?"

Loki looked up at him with an expression of hope. "Yes, it is possible, but you need to know the proper procedures and everything. And you need to know exactly what you are going to say to Thor once you get the connection, because it does not last long, and that is assuming that the casting of the spell doesn't kill your mortal body before then."

Tony just stood there for a few seconds. "Alright, let's do this thing."

Loki rolled his eyes. "Okay, just stand over here and I will tell you what you need to do."

**Please review, or I shall make you coffee without caffeine in it...Loki'd!**


	15. I'm Always Careful

**Well, here's the next chapter... Thank's again for all the reviews, they really do make my day! **

Loki hadn't even thought of the communication spell. In the many hours that he had been lying in bed unable to stand up for fear of falling over or weakening he had thought of how he could heal his condition. He had known that the best way to solve his problems would be to get back to Asgard for more magical cures, but since his magic was so messed up he knew that that would not be an option. He hadn't thought about speaking to Thor and getting him to transport here. There were plenty of magic-wielders in Asgard for him to get back here without Loki's assistance, and if Thor was to bring the tesseract with him then they could both get back to Asgard very easily.

Loki was just worried that the magic that Stark was using to establish the connection would backfire on him. Humans were not made to withstand magic, and even though Stark had magic keeping him alive he had never used it like he would be trying to. There was no telling what would happen.

"After that you must make sure that you tell him what you need to say quickly, otherwise the connection will break and you will have not made your point," Loki explained.

"Understood," Stark responded, nodding slowly.

"Okay, now you just need to focus on the magic that you have. If you focus hard enough you will be able to feel it, to imagine that it is an actual, tangible force. Use this, and then imagine that there is a small line connecting you to Thor."

"Is that all?" Stark asked him.

"Yes," Loki began. "But, Stark, please be careful and don't overdo it."

Stark looked up at him, surprised to hear the worry in his voice. "Don't worry, I'm always careful," Stark responded with a smile, and then closed his eyes in concentration.

Loki had no way of knowing if Stark was doing it correctly, or if he was just standing there getting nothing completed. Loki was beginning to doubt his accuracy in stating that Stark could use the magic in his arc reactor, but then he felt strange electricity in the air. Stark really did catch on to new ideas quickly.

"Who is there?" came a deep, thundering voice. It sounded as if Thor was standing right there in the room with them, but he was nowhere to be seen. Pepper had jumped and sat down in the chair in shock.

"It's Tony Stark. We don't have much time to talk, so just listen. Loki's sick and has contracted some magical sickness. You need to come here immediately with the tesseract and take him back to Asgard to heal. It is imperative that you bring the tesseract quickly."

The other end was silent for a few seconds, and Loki began to worry that Thor had not understood anything.

"I will come immediately with the tesseract," Thor responded, and the connection ended. Stark sagged on the edge of the bed, completely drained from that short little spell.

"Whoa, magic really takes a lot out of you," he mumbled.

"Well, when you are a human it does. Us gods usually have no trouble with it," Loki responded. He wondered if he was losing his godlike traits and becoming weaker. Maybe that was why he having trouble using magic and getting extremely sick from it.

"That was interesting," Pepper said, staring around the room as if Thor was going to step out of the closet and laugh at all of them. That was when Thor stepped out of thin air with a large crack of thunder. Pepper yelped and took cover behind the chair.

Thor looked around the room; at Pepper standing behind the chair, at Stark sitting on the edge of the bed, and then his eyes landed on Loki.

"Brother!" he boomed, moving around to the side of the bed. Loki looked up at him, smiling weakly.

"Hello, Thor. I am actually glad to see you for once," Loki said, and he really did mean it. Thor being here meant that he could possibly find out how to get rid of this sickness.

"Loki, what has happened to you?"

Loki shrugged. "I seem to have contracted a sickness of some sort."

Thor turned on Stark who had stood up from the bed. "You gave my brother a disease!" He advanced on Stark, fists by his sides.

"Thor, this sickness has something to do with magic and is nothing like a human sickness!" Loki said hurriedly. "I summoned too much extra magic healing Stark and something happened."

Thor stopped in his advancing on Stark and turned to look at Loki. "Then it is still his fault!"

"Oh yes, he wanted to be flattened by a building! He wanted to have to be resuscitated by magic!" Loki argued, following it up with a few painful coughs and leaning his head back against the headboard.

"Come on Thor, the blame doesn't need to be handed out right now, Loki needs help," Stark said urgently. Thor held up the tesseract that was in the cylinder casing and walked over to Loki.

"Alright, brother, you will need to stand up in order to get transported correctly."

"I know that," Loki hissed, swinging his legs slowly off of the bed. He looked up at Stark. "Stark, will you come with us?"

Both Stark and Thor looked at him like he was mad. "I thought us humans couldn't survive on Asgard for long?" Stark asked.

"Normal humans can't, but you are currently hosting godly magic that I gave to you, so you should be able to survive for much longer there," Loki explained. He didn't know why he wanted Stark with him so much, but something inside of him could not stand the thought of leaving Stark here while he was being healed, especially if something went wrong.

"A human on Asgard?" Thor said, his eyebrows knitting together.

Loki looked over at Thor. "A human that has been keeping me alive and called you to come retrieve me for healing," he said. He was starting to feel dizzy again and wanted to get this conversation over with. Thor must have seen the tiredness on Loki's face, because he nodded.

"Stark, get over here and put a hand on the tesseract. We will all go back to Asgard," Thor said. Stark complied, and he stood next to Loki, putting a firm grip on Loki's arm to help him stand up without falling over. They all put a hand on the tesseract.

"Hey, see you in a little bit, Pepper," Stark said to Pepper, who merely nodded, a little dazed from seeing all of this magic. Thor twisted something on the cylinder and they were immediately plunged into the darkness of limbo.

Loki remembered the first time he had been transported like this, the way that the darkness pressed in on you, the feeling that you were never going to see the light of day again. This must have been how Stark was feeling, because the grip that he had on Loki's arm tightened. Of course, you could not see one another in the darkness it was so all-consuming, but Loki knew that they were still there.

Limbo only lasted a few seconds, and soon they were standing on the broken edge of the rainbow bridge staring at the glowing mass of Asgard in the distance.

"Thor, why did you send us here? Now we have to walk all the way to Asgard!" Loki complained, his knees already weak and his head already spinning.

"Hmm… I didn't really think about that," Thor said, scratching his bearded chin.

Loki glanced at Stark and saw that he was a little paler than usual. "How are you holding up there, Stark?" Loki asked, and he couldn't help the smile that curved on his lips at the sight of Stark's awed gaze at the sparkling city.

"I'm doing….wow," Stark managed to say. "Quite the architects you got here," he whispered.

They ended up using the tesseract to transport themselves into the palace, right near the healing room. The double transportation, even though he wasn't using his magic, really took its toll on Loki, and he found himself extremely dizzy and nauseous.

"Brother, hold out for a few more seconds, we are almost to the infirmary," Thor said to a weakening Loki. Stark and Thor ended up supporting Loki on both sides to get him to the healing wing.

The healing wing was a section of the palace designed for healing wounds mostly, because most gods didn't get sick. When one did, it was usually news to everyone in Asgard, and people tended to get distraught. A nurse was waiting when Loki was dragged in, and she hopped out of her chair in alarm at the sight of the pale, weak god in their arms. She ushered them to one of the beds in the large room, and they laid Loki down gently.

"What happened to him?" the nurse asked in a high-pitched voice that grated on Loki's already frazzled senses. She noticed that Thor was with them. "Allfather."

"Some sort of magical sickness that he caught when saving someone's life," Stark said to her, and she looked at him closer.

"You're a human!" she chirped in alarm. "What are you doing here?"

"I am the human who's life he saved, and I thought I would make sure that he is okay," Stark said simply, shrugging as if it was no big deal.

"There hasn't been a human here in years," she responded. "The last one that was here burst into flames as soon as he set foot into the city walls."

The nurse moved away from Thor and Stark and stood at Loki's bedside. "Hey, you're Loki!" she said, and then looked over at Stark. "So that means you must be that Stark human that is with him, you know, the man of iron that is rehabilitating him!"

Stark and Loki both stared at Thor, wondering how in the world this little blonde nurse knew that they were together. Loki was too tired and dizzy to complain, but Stark was going to do that for him.

"So, Mr. God of Thunder, you like a little gossip, don't you? Told the whole of Asgard, did you?"

Thor looked at his feet in embarrassment. "Well, the people wanted to know where my little brother was. They thought that he was out at Earth, destroying things again. I wanted to reassure them."

"By telling them all of Loki's business?" He paused. "And mine too?"

"I am sorry, Tony Stark, I meant no disrespect," Thor said, looking back up at Stark.

"Alright, you two need to get out of here so that I can check him over. I will call the doctor in to do a more thorough check," the nurse said, starting to shoo them out.

Stark moved right next to the head of the bed, despite the nurse's tsking, and knelt down so that he was face-to-face with Loki. "You get through this, okay?" he said softly.

"I will try, Stark. I will try," Loki responded, and he felt his vision swim. He was going to lose consciousness, he just knew it. The last thing he remembered before he blacked out was Stark gently gripping his chin and placing a soft kiss on his lips, obviously not caring about the chance of getting sick as well.

Loki slipped into darkness with a small, genuine smile on his face.

**Again, I shall remind you to review, or I may just go into Odinsleep and you will not get anymore chapters out of me...**


	16. Don't Need Magic to Kill

**Yippee, chapie 16! There is so much that I would like to happen in this fic that I cannot seem to write it fast enough... And I think my family has forgotten what I look like... Do I have a beard yet? ;) Anyways, please enjoy the chapter! And I am female, therefor I cannot have a beard...hopefully...**

Transportation had been the oddest thing that Tony had ever felt. If it hadn't been for the grip he had on Loki's arm he might have freaked out completely. Of course, Tony Stark never freaked out, but he might have gotten a little more…nervous. The magic that Loki was giving off must have eased up a bit, because the only thing that Tony felt when he touched Loki was a small tingling sensation as opposed to the large shock he had gotten when he had tried before. Tony didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing, and it worried him to think that he needed to leave Loki's side while he was being healed by some unknown doctor. Tony wished he could be there for the whole thing, making sure that everything was all right. Thor had glared daggers at Tony when he had kissed Loki, but at seeing Loki's obvious happiness let it go.

As Tony and Thor sat in the golden waiting room Tony pondered the events that had brought him this far. He thought back to his first real talk with Loki in Stark Tower, how he had been trying to threaten Loki, and how shortly after the angry god had launched him out of the window. He remembered how arrogant Loki had been, and how he had almost destroyed all of New York City. The memory of that now made Tony smile. It was amazing how much Loki had changed since then and how much Tony had learned about the adopted frost giant. The sickly god in the other room was days away from the arrogant villain he had been when Tony had first met him. It was strange to think that that had only been a few months ago. That led to his thoughts on getting back to work. Just because he was Tony Stark the billionaire did not mean that it gave him the right to just slack off completely. Once Loki was healed completely Pepper, Loki, and Tony were moving back to California so that Tony could finish his environmental campaign.

"Why did you choose my brother?" Thor asked abruptly, jolting Tony out of his thoughts.

"Hmm?"

"You are Tony Stark, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist as you put it. You could have almost anyone you wanted. Why choose my broken brother?"

Tony wanted to snap at him for doubting his brother's ability to score in the dating department, but he paused, really thinking about it. He knew that Thor didn't mean harm when he asked, he was genuinely curious, so Tony wanted to be genuine in his response.

"Well, when he landed in Stark Tower over a month ago he seemed so lost, nothing like the villain that I had seen when he was trying to take over the world. It really did start out as curiosity and sympathy," Tony said. He paused, remembering the whole SHIELD fiasco and Pepper getting angry at him. It was kind of funny thinking back on it now. "And then I started to see myself in him; how I felt after I'd gotten kidnapped and had seen how many of our people my weapons were killing. I wanted to help him, to see him get better from his low. I wanted him to see that there are people that care for him, that he isn't alone in the universe. I slowly realized that I was one of those people that cared for him, and I really had no choice in the matter. It just slowly got worse the more time I spent with him."

Thor nodded. "You have really helped my brother, Anthony, and I commend you for that. And I really do trust you, even though it may not seem like it at times."

"Thank you," Tony responded softly, and they both fell into silence, nerves for Loki taking them over. Waiting rooms, no matter what realm you were on, were anxious places. Tony wished there was a magazine or something around so that he could distract himself from the worry and dread that were slowly increasing inside of him. What was it about waiting in silence that made a person get more and more nervous?

Tony was just about to ask Thor if he wanted to play a game of concentration when a man dressed in strange scrub-like clothing stepped out of the hospital wing. Tony guessed this must be the doctor.

"Hello, your majesty," he said bowing his head slightly to Thor. He turned to Tony. "Are you here for Loki too?"

"Yes, I am Tony Stark, his… friend," Tony told the man. "You're the doctor?"

"I am Dr. Hermod," he said, holding out his hand for a handshake with Tony. Tony took it and then leaned back in his chair. He really wanted to know what was up with Loki.

"What is the state of my brother?" Thor asked, leaning forward in his chair. The doctor took a seat across from them with a weary sigh.

"He is stable right now; asleep. I have not seen this sickness in quite some time, I must say."

"What sickness, Hermod?" Thor demanded, his voice getting slightly louder.

"It is the combination of a human sickness and a magical one that comes from using great amounts of magic around humans without making sure to keep up the magical 'safety barrier' so to say. We react differently to sickness than humans do; that is why he is dizzy and went through the opposite of a fever a few days ago, if I am not mistaken."

"Is there a cure?" Tony asked.

"Well, since he has been on Earth for a while it has not gotten as bad as it would've if he had arrived here days ago. The problem long ago was that gods would go and fraternize with humans and show off their magical powers, and then they would come right back here with the disease. All of the magic in the air just made it worse, and before we were able to come up with a cure many died. Since most of Loki's sickness ran its course back on Midgard then he should be easily healed."

Both Tony and Thor relaxed at the good news. The huge cloud of worry slowly drifted away. "What is this cure?" Thor asked.

"The cure is something that only the king can do. Loki's magic must be taken away from him for about a week to allow the sickness move on."

"Poor Loki's not going to take too kindly to that," Tony said with a small smile on his face.

"Have you told him?" Thor asked, standing up.

"No, he was on the verge of delirium before he fell asleep. It would be best to change him before he wakes up again."

"Oh, Loki's really not going to take kindly to this," Tony said, and he followed the doctor and Thor back into the infirmary.

They moved to Loki's bed that now had a curtain around it for privacy, even though there was nobody else in the healing room right now. People on Asgard really did not get hurt often.

The doctor pulled aside the curtain, and Tony saw that Loki was now under hospital sheets and was sleeping soundly for once.

"Can you perform that spell when he's asleep?" Tony asked, glancing back at Thor.

"Yes, the person who you are performing it on does not have to be awake, though the spell will probably end up waking him up," Thor responded. He turned to the doctor. "Am I alright to do the spell now?" he asked.

The doctor nodded. "Whenever you are ready, your majesty."

XxX

Loki was jolted out of peaceful dream by a rush of sparks running down his spine. He sat up in the bed, coming to much quicker than he would have liked. It took him a few seconds to focus on his surroundings and put his senses together. There were three people standing around his bed; a man that Loki remembered to be the doctor, Thor, and Stark.

Thor had one arm held out at him and looked like he had just done a spell, judging by the magic that was swirling away from him, and it must have been done on Loki. Stark was looking at him in anticipation, as if there was something that he was expecting him to do.

"What is going on?" Loki asked, frowning. He then realized that he did not feel the least bit sickly anymore. It was as though it had just been lifted away from him.

"Well, you aren't sick anymore," the doctor simply with a smile on his face.

And then Loki realized what must have happened for the magical sickness to have gone away. He held up his fingers and tried to make sparks jump around on them, as it was the simplest thing he could do. Nothing happened; not even a single tingle or spark.

"I'm human," he mumbled in awe. "Completely human."

"But only for a week until we are sure that the sickness is completely gone," the doctor explained quickly at seeing Loki's expression of slight panic.

Loki started to feel a strange burning sensation in the pit of his stomach, a sensation that warranted no good. He swung his legs out of the bed and stood up quickly. Just that motion alone sent waves of the odd heat through his chest and stomach. He clutched at his midsection in pain.

The three standing around him all looked at him in worry.

"What's wrong, Loki?" Stark asked, moving toward him and placing a hand on his arm.

"Burning in my stomach," Loki grunted, wincing in the now doubling pain.

Stark turned to Thor. "You need to send us back to Earth, now! We are in Asgard and he is now completely human. He could die!" Stark said sharply to Thor. Loki now knew exactly why he felt like he was going to burst into flames. Because he was.

Thor had surprise written all over his face, and so did the doctor. Thor had the tesseract in his grip with one swish of his hands. "Thank you much, Dr. Hermod, we shall be going now," Thor said quickly. He walked over to Stark and Loki, who was now sweating profusely, and held out the tesseract to them, which they both took ahold of. The room around them fizzled out of focus and gave way to the darkness of limbo, which then became the living room in Stark Tower.

Loki sat heavily on the couch, relieved that the burning sensation had gone away. "That was exciting," he mumbled.

Stark moved and sat next to him. "Feeling better?" he asked softly.

Loki merely nodded tiredly. Stark pulled him into an embrace, allowing Loki to rest his head on Stark's shoulder.

"Loki, Stark, I will be back in a week to check in on you and give Loki his powers back," Thor said. "Goodbye, brother." With that he disappeared, leaving the room oddly quiet.

Loki closed his eyes and relished the warmth of Stark's arms around him and the nice soapy smell he had. "Thank you for caring so much, Stark," Loki said softly.

Stark pulled back, holding Loki at arm's length. "After all of this you still choose to call me by my last name. You can call me Tony if you would like," he said.

Loki had never really thought about it before. Stark just sounded right on his tongue, but he supposed now that they were so close he could call him by his first name. People on Asgard always went by their first names anyways.

"Tony," he said, tasting it, trying it out.

Stark smiled. "That's more like it," he said, and then kissed Loki slowly, running a hand through Loki's dark hair.

"Hey, I heard you guys enter. Is everything- okaaaayyyy…" Pepper began, but at seeing Stark and Loki kissing she turned on her heel.

Loki and Stark broke apart quickly, and Stark stood up from the couch. "Hey, Pepp, how you been?" Stark asked happily.

"Fine; worried actually, but now that you're here, I'm better."

"Yeah, Loki's all better now. The only cure was to turn him to a human for a week."

"Whoa, you're a human now?" Pepper asked Loki, who looked up at her.

"Yes I am, as Sta- Tony just told you," Loki said to her.

Pepper smiled. "So that means I have a whole week to get to know you without the chance of you killing me," Pepper said cheerfully.

"Oh, there are many other ways to kill somebody without the use of magic," Loki said dangerously, a smile curving on his lips.

Pepper froze, not knowing if Loki was serious or not. Loki really didn't know if he was serious or not either.

"Well, on that note, let's go and get some drinks!" Stark said, and he ushered them towards the elevator.

**Alrighty then... I really don't need to be threatening you guys because you are awesome at reviewing but it's so much fun! So...hmmm... review or I will... put on an eyepatch and start yelling at you... 0.$**


	17. Kneel, You Mewling Quims

**This chapter was quite fun to write, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do...**

"So, you were going to destroy that whole place? The place where you were born, just for your father's approval?" Pepper asked, sipping at the alcoholic drink that she had ordered at the bar they were currently at, a place where Tony frequently went when he was looking for a good time. The bartender knew him very well.

"Yes," Loki responded simply.

"And you were going to kill your brother given the chance?"

Loki paused at this. "Well, to tell you the truth, I knew that I would never be able to kill him off. I never planned on destroying him completely, just making him think that I wanted to destroy him completely."

"And then you decided to take over the Earth with the help of a race of bloodthirsty aliens," Pepper said.

"Well, yes, but…"

"And then you killed tons of humans and almost destroyed the whole of New York City."

"Well, _yes_, but…"

"And you threw Tony out of a _window_ on the top floor of a skyscraper."

"Yes, I did, but…"

"The only thing that stopped you from killing any more people was the fact that you got pulverized by Bruce."

Loki stood up from his barstool in a flash. "I may have done all of those horrible things, but you do not understand how much it haunts me now. You do not understand how much I have mourned for the life where I was not seen as the villain, where people did not look at me and sneer or run away," he said, and then his voice became quieter. "Stark has given me a chance that I would never have gotten otherwise, and I have been trying to take the most out of this chance." Loki seemed to deflate, sitting back down heavily and hiding his face in his hands.

Pepper was looking at him, and Tony could tell that she was trying to figure out what to think of this forlorn Norse god. Tony also knew that Loki had a sad face that, even when he wasn't trying to, made most people melt immediately upon seeing it. He probably didn't even know how tragic his sad face looked.

Tony had stayed silent for the past twenty minutes or so, trying to let the two talk to each other and get to know each other, planning on jumping in only if they were about to kill one another. It had been entertaining, to say the least, watching Loki trying to keep his cool as Pepper used her sarcastic comments and dry humor on him. And Loki was surprisingly good at keeping his cool. He had had lots of practice with Tony, though.

"You know, you remind me of Tony," Pepper finally said to Loki, who still had his face hidden in his hands. Loki looked up at her.

"Sta- Tony tells me that I remind him of himself too," Loki said quietly. "I suppose we do share some of the same problems." He picked up the glass in front of him and threw it back, completely emptying it into his mouth.

"Hey, you might want to take it easy there," Tony said. "You're human so you won't be able to handle the alcohol as well."

Loki looked over at him and shrugged. "Maybe I don't care if I can't handle it as well."

Tony didn't respond, turning back to his own drink and sipping it slowly. He really did wonder what a drunk Loki was like, having seen him drunk only when he had been just as drunk that long month ago.

The tense conversation between Loki and Pepper loosened once more alcohol had been introduced, and soon Tony did not have to be on edge watching them. It was amazing what the powers of alcohol could do to a situation, whether it be good or bad.

"I totally agree with you! His obsession with having the last joke in an argument is so irritating!" Pepper said to Loki.

"You know, I'm sitting right here. I can totally here what you're saying," Tony grumbled, frowning even deeper at their laughs. So maybe this hadn't been a very good idea, seeing as their 'bonding' was happening at his expense.

"I do have to admit, he is a _great_ kisser," Pepper said, leaning back in her seat to look around Loki at Tony, who she smiled sweetly at.

"Oh, absolutely," Loki agreed, turning in his barstool, grabbing Tony's chin, and pulling him in for a sloppy kiss, which made Pepper giggle.

When he finally released Tony he spun back around to face Pepper as though nothing had happened, and they continued comparing notes on Tony, which continued to get worse as the night progressed. Yeah, this had been a bad idea.

"You were not around for his major playboy stage," Pepper said to Loki. "You would be majorly surprised by how many women woke up to an empty bed alone in his house, and I was left to deal with them. It was an interesting experience, to say the least."

Loki giggled into his drink. "I would not put it past Tony to do such a thing." Loki seemed to be someone that kept coherent speech even when he was majorly incapacitated by drink.

"You know, you are not's bad as I thought you'd be," Pepper said to Loki, leaning forward and patting him on the side of the face. Her strawberry blonde hair had long ago lost the elastic that had held it up in a bun and was now framing her face.

"Good to know," Loki said, brushing her hand away.

She put a finger in the air. "I give you and Tony my blessing!" she said loudly, drawing a few strange looks from the other people at the bar.

Loki clapped his hands. "Yay!"

Tony rolled his eyes and wondered if Pepper would have said that if she was completely sober. Maybe, maybe not.

"You know, Loki, if former Loki saw that you were clapping your hands and shouting 'yay' in that shrill voice he would probably spit at the new Loki," Tony said to the god-turned-human, who was spinning in his barstool and giggling. Loki froze, frowning.

"I am still the Trickster God!" he said defiantly. "I can still go there!"

"You say that as you spin on a barstool and giggle," Tony retorted, smiling. Oh man, he liked this.

Loki stood up. "I am not to be teased!" he shouted shrilly. Tony, knowing that there would be no dangerous flashes of magic to worry about, smiled larger.

"I'm not scared of you, and I don't think that anyone in this room is either."

"I'm not scared," Pepper said, raising her hand slightly.

"Just. Watch," he said icily to Tony, and he paused. A look of confusion passed his face, followed by realization, and then anger.

"Yeah, no magic, mister Norse God," Tony said, turning back to his drink which was still his first one. He hadn't wanted to be drunk this night.

"I can still be terrifying," Loki said indignantly. That was when he stood up on his barstool, teetering dangerously, but managing to stay upright. "Humans!" he shouted at the room at large, which fell into a surprised silence. "You are beneath me, you pitiful creatures, and you shall kneel!"

"Get down from there, you drunk!" somebody yelled. There were shouts of agreement.

"You fools!" Loki spat. "I may seem like one of you, but in a week's time I shall return to full power and smite all of you!"

This was met with more boos and shouts, and Tony began to try to pull Loki down from the barstool. He would either fall painfully or get beaten up by somebody else in the bar if he continued how he was.

"Do not touch me, Stark," Loki hissed, batting away Tony's hands, and then turned back to the room. "I said, kneel!" he shouted. He did not look very imposing in his human clothing, and only Tony knew how scary he could be. These people had no idea, and just thought he was another rowdy drunk.

"Alright, Loki, I think you've had enough fun. Time to go home," Tony said urgently, aware that there were some angry stares coming their way.

"These mewling quims need to be taught a lesson!" Loki whined as Tony finally managed to pull him off of the barstool.

"Let's go home, Loki, you are very drunk and you are about to do some things that you will regret in the morning," Tony said to Loki. "Pepper, come on, we're going home."

Pepper hopped up from her own seat, giggling as she followed Tony, who was dragging a struggling Loki.

"Sorry about that, everyone, someone's just had a little too much to drink," Tony said to the room, and then they left out the front door to the stares of the whole bar.

XxX

Loki awoke in his bed in Stark Tower, trying desperately to remember the fuzzy occurrences of the night before to no avail. He had drank the same amount that he had the first time he had gone drinking with Stark, but this time he had been human, so was not able to hold the alcohol as well. He groaned at the pounding headache and sat up in the bed.

"Stark would like to know if you wanted a cup of coffee," chimed the voice of JARVIS. Loki started slightly.

"I dislike coffee," he began, but felt his headache boom against his skull. "On second thought, that would be great."

"I shall tell Stark," JARVIS said.

Loki pulled himself out of the bed and realized he was not wearing his usual sleepwear. These seemed to be some of Stark's as they were slightly too short for him. Loki then realized that he would have to borrow clothing; he wouldn't be able to just materialize clothes out of thin air anymore. He opened the closet that he never used, fully expecting it to be completely empty, but finding that there were a few outfits hanging inside that seemed up to his standards.

He pulled out his outfit of choice and decided a shower was in order. Loki had not really ever needed a shower before, being magical and having the ability to clean himself with mere willpower, but he had enjoyed them ever since coming here, especially since the showers in Stark Tower were state of the art.

A little while later, a clean but still hung over Loki stepped out of his room to the smell of freshly brewed coffee. Stark was sitting at the bar sipping on his cup and reading the newspaper. He looked up when Loki sat down at the bar across from him.

"Morning, princess. How are you this fine day?" Stark asked him cheerfully.

Loki groaned. "Horrible," he moaned. "Can you enlighten me as to the events of last night?"

Tony smiled. "Well, first you and Pepper compared notes on me. Then, I told you that the coherent Loki would be rather embarrassed about the drunken one. You got mad, and then you hopped up on a barstool and started telling the whole entire bar to kneel, and you called them mewling quims."

"Oh dear."

"Yeah, I had to drag you out while the whole bar glared daggers at us."

"I am sorry about that," Loki grumbled. Stark stood up and walked over to the coffee machine. He poured some into a mug.

"How do you like your coffee?" Stark asked him.

"Lots of sugar and cream," Loki responded. A few seconds later the cup was set in front of him, fully doctored. He took a wary sip, and then decided that the sharpened awareness that it gave him was worth the odd taste.

"If you want, I have some Excedrin for your headache," Stark said, pointing a thumb at the cabinets behind him.

"Who is this Excedrin you speak of, and how will he cure my headache?" Loki queried.

Stark chuckled and stood up, rifling through a cabinet that seemed to be filled with bottles and boxes of some sort. He pulled one out, shook it, and then opened it and shook two little pills out into his palm. He walked over to another cabinet, pulled out a glass and filled it with water from the tap. He set both the pills and the water in front of Loki.

"Here, swallow these with the water," Stark told him, pointing at the white pills. Loki did as he said and then looked at Stark in anticipation.

"Why has my headache not cleared up?" Loki asked, wincing at the pain in his head. These stupid pills must not work on him after all.

Stark laughed as he sat back down across from Loki. "You have to wait a little while for them to enter your bloodstream," he said, taking a sip of his coffee. "They're not magic, you know."

"That is quite irritating," Loki grumbled.

"That's being a human for you, and a lot of the times the medicine doesn't ever work."

"Being a human is dreadful," Loki said sharply, hating the fuzziness he felt from the hangover. When he had magic he could just will away the headaches and stomachaches. Now he just had to sit here and bear it.

"Tell me about it," Stark agreed.

"Where is that Pepper woman?" Loki asked, looking around the place as if he expected her to walk in at any moment.

"Oh, I gave her the week off. She needed some time to relax, and we are okay here by ourselves," Stark explained, waving his hand absentmindedly. "She was grumpy this morning anyway. She drank a good amount last night too, though she actually remembers what happened. Had a good laugh about you, we did."

Loki grumbled and took another sip of his coffee. "So, what fun do you have planned for this pleasantly terrible day?" Loki asked.

Stark scratched his goatee. "Well, I was thinking I would show you off to my fans, you know? Let the people know what the fabulous Tony Stark has been getting up to. Get back in the limelight that I have been neglecting."

Loki's attention snapped back up to Stark. "What?"

"Well, there's no point in having something amazing if you can't show it off," Stark said simply, causing Loki to cough on a mouthful of coffee.

**So, what shall I threaten you with this time? Hmmm... If you don't review I will...hit you with my car 'accidentally'...twice. ;)**


	18. Tailored Pants

**Hello, everyone, sorry that it has been a few days since I have updated...been busy... so here's a slightly longer chapter to make you feel better!**

"I am sorry, everyone, that I have been out of commission for a while, but I've been dealing with some important stuff," Stark said to the large room of reporters from his higher spot at the podium in front of the microphones. Loki was watching all of this from the side door that led right to the stage. The door was open, so Loki was hidden from the audience by the open door. His arms were crossed and he was leaning against the doorframe, ever the picture of carelessness, but inside he was nervous. What was Stark planning on telling all of his fans?

There were reporters asking questions left and right, and Stark ignored most of them, only answering when he deemed necessary. "Well, let's just say that I have been working on some SHIELD business," Stark said calmly. "And this business has been turning out much better than I thought it would. Everyone in SHIELD is very impressed with the results, and out of it we may have just earned ourselves another Avenger."

At this the room burst into more frantic questioning and snapping of cameras. "Mr. Stark, sir, we all heard of your joining together to fight the aliens that one last time two weeks ago, but we heard nothing about this new Avenger," said a reporter in the front, and he held his recorder up nearer to the podium to catch Stark's reply.

"Well, said new Avenger is here to meet you all," Stark replied calmly. The room had gotten surprisingly quiet, waiting for what was going to happen. With Stark you really never knew what was coming.

Stark had wanted Loki to make sure he styled his hair exactly as it had been when the aliens had taken over just to see if anyone would recognize him as the one who brought the aliens onto Midgard. Loki really did wonder why he wanted this, but he knew that Stark probably had some reasoning of some sort, and it wasn't like Loki ever styled his hair any different. And then Stark looked over at him, motioning for Loki to come and stand with him out at the podium. Now this Loki was acquainted with, making appearances in front of large populations. He _had_ been the Allfather's son once. Loki walked out next to Stark, his head held high and his steps long and purposeful, confident.

Again there was silence from the crowd as they took in his appearance and tried to figure out who he was; if they had seen him before. He stopped next to Stark, who put his arm around Loki's shoulders. The silence was broken by the continued questioning of the reporters.

"Hey!" one shouted above the rest. "Isn't that the guy who brought all of those aliens in to destroy us?"

The others fell silent, staring at Loki closer now that this had been brought to their attention.

"Yeah, we covered that incident in Germany with the crazy guy that attacked an older German fellow in the middle of an important party, and then fought with Captain America in front of all of them. He was claiming that he was going to rule us all," continued the reporter, glaring at Loki with new venom. Now that the other reporters had realized that Loki was, indeed, the one that had caused so much devastation, they started yelling out more urgent, biting questions.

"Good call," Stark said, smiling wider if possible. "Really glad to know that you all recognize my friend." He paused, allowing them to blubber some more. "Well, while you have been sorely missing my great presence in the world of the media I have been very busy. Very busy reforming and working with said 'evil villain.' Now, everyone, if someone was truly as evil and crazy as you all say he was, would he look as good as he does in those awesomely tailored pants?"

He was met with astonished silence. He continued on, un-phased. "I would like you to know that even the leaders of Avengers, the most untrustworthy bunch you could find, believe Loki to be refined and reformed. He regrets his actions and wishes to apologize to all of you."

Stark literally thrust Loki in front of the podium and microphones, leaving Loki at the will of the vicious reporters. He did stand there smiling behind Loki, though, an action that he was going to regret later, Loki would make sure of it.

"Uh, hello," Loki greeted, not really sure what Stark wanted him to say and what they needed to hear from him. "What Stark says is true. I regret my past actions against your people and wish to make amends."

"Is that all we get after you completely destroyed our city and tried to enslave all of us?" another reporter yelled.

Loki closed his eyes in frustration. Why did he have to deal with these stupid mortals? Well, he did suppose he owed it to them, having done so much to them. "I know that there is nothing that I can say that will make you warm to me immediately, but I ask that you hear my apologies and think about it. I hope to keep saving your lives as one of the Avengers and I hope that you will come to see that I am through with my dark ways."

There were more questions, but Loki ignored them, allowing Stark to take his place back at the podium. "Oh, and another thing that I thought you all should know, since you all are so obsessed with my private life," he said, pausing, waiting for the full attention of the crowd. "Mr. Loki and I are going steady."

There was silence again from the crowd, and Loki could tell that they thought that Stark was just pulling another one of his jokes on them. And then to make them even more confused Stark gently pulled Loki by the arm up to him and kissed him heartily on the lips, and Loki saw a few cameras snap. Stark turned back to the audience to smile innocently.

They exploded; asking questions loudly and snapping pictures. It was a madhouse, and Loki could hear that some of these questions were directed at him, and were not what one would call polite. Loki felt his blood begin to boil at all of these simple humans knowing his business and questioning him about it. Why did Stark want this, anyway? Was this information not sacred to him? Apparently not.

"To anyone who is wondering, I have not gone insane. I have merely decided what I like," Stark said. "And I am Tony Stark, and you know I don't settle."

Loki was done with this. He did not want to be up here anymore, getting judged by these simpletons. He shook Stark's arm off of his shoulder roughly. "Stark, I've had enough of this," he growled, and Stark looked over at him in slight surprise. "You may be fine with standing up here getting grilled, but I am not. You may have been angry at Thor for telling his subjects our business, but this is far worse. I thought you above this."

"Loki," Stark said, but Loki had already turned heel and swept out of the room angrily. He would not stand up to this kind of treatment, no matter if he happened to be human or not. He was not some toy that Stark could just show off to his friends whenever he liked. No, he was not going to stand for this. As he walked away he heard Stark's crowd get loud again, obviously excited at Loki snapping at him, but Loki could care less. Stark was probably used to dealing with the reporters and could handle their questions himself.

Loki walked back to Stark Tower, not caring that it was raining gently, not caring that it happened to be a bit of a long walk. He had not really liked the idea of going back to Stark's place at first, but it wasn't like he had anywhere else to go. Loki found that being alone was the best way to settle his anger, and walking along in the rain seemed to have a freshening affect. Loki was suddenly overwhelmed by the fact that he didn't really have a place; that he was neither human nor Asgardian, and he had been cast out from the Frost Giants when he was just a baby. He was here on Earth, but did he really have a purpose here? Was he really doing something worthwhile? No, he was doing nothing of importance except having a little fun with a rich human, and this hurt him to think, but that was really what it came down to. Was this what Loki, God of Mischief, should be wasting his time doing? But if not here with Stark, where would he go? And Stark seemed to understand him more than anyone else did. He was someone who didn't care that Loki was a Chaos God or that he had almost destroyed New York and killed them all. No, Stark saw him for his true personality and cared that he was doing okay.

By the time Loki made it back to Stark Tower he was drenching wet and his mood really hadn't improved any. His emotions were swirling around in an unsure mixture and he felt more lost than ever. He found himself up on the large balcony of Stark Tower, staring out over New York deep in thought, pondering the meaning of his existence, the events that had led him to this point, pondering just how angry he was at Stark. He realized that Stark had never even seen him in his true form, blue and marked. Loki didn't know what Stark would think of this. He had said it himself not thirty minutes ago, 'I don't settle.' Was he really that conceited and self-obsessed? Well, yes. Had Loki been wasting his time here, was it all really worth it? Did Stark really even truly care for him, or was it all an act?

That was all it took, and Loki found tears sliding down his face, blending with the rain that was coming down. He sat on the very edge of the balcony, not caring that it was dangerous and that he was in a mortal form. He didn't care.

XxX

Originally Tony had thought it a good idea to show Loki off, that Loki would enjoy the attention. He really had been meaning to take a more serious turn on the conversation with the press, but Tony had a bad problem with getting out of hand in front of his fans. He really hadn't meant to kiss Loki in front of all of them, but when the time came he couldn't resist. Tony couldn't blame Loki's anger at him, he really couldn't. He supposed it was humiliating to be displayed like that in front of all of those cameras and nosy reporters. And Loki was not one for humiliation.

After Loki had left Tony cleared up some of their questions, insisted that he was not insane or under control by Loki, and then left. He was really worried as to what was going to be in the newspapers the next day. He needed to get home and make sure that Loki hadn't hurt himself doing something in anger that he would have gotten away with being a god. He was not immortal at the moment, and Tony really should have been keeping a better eye on the guy and not ticking him off. He knew that Loki was more self-sustaining then Thor was, but it didn't mean that there wasn't something bad that could happen to him on the streets of New York, because there were many more things that could happen here than in a small town in New Mexico like where Thor had been.

Tony quickly cleared out, leaving the shocked reporters to fend for themselves. It wasn't likely that Loki had decided to take a taxi or the subway, so Tony figured that the angered god had walked back to Stark Tower. Tony looked up at the sky, cursing the rain that was now falling steadily. Tony had known that he was somehow going to wreck this somehow, and now it was probably happening. He had ruined it, made a fool of Loki on television, most likely. He pulled his coat tighter around himself and turned up his collar against the cold rain and wind that was now picking up. Why was it that there was always rain when you were feeling down?

Tony made it to the building eventually, shaking the rain off of his coat in the lobby and making his way to the private elevator. He stepped inside and took a deep breath before he hit the button for the penthouse, and he wondered how he was going to make this up to Loki as the elevator rode smoothly upward.

It took Tony a good amount of time to find Loki, because he did not want to call out to him, giving the god a chance to ignore Tony. He eventually spotted him sitting on the edge of the balcony near the place where Tony landed to take off the suit. He was sitting out in the rain, obviously not caring that he was getting wet, and his shoulders were hunched. From where he was standing Tony could not see Loki's face so he had no idea what was going on out there. Tony slowly walked outside and took a seat next to Loki, who didn't acknowledge his arrival in the least.

When Tony turned to look at Loki he noticed that Loki had his face in his hands.

"Hey, Loki," Tony said softly, not daring to touch the forlorn god. "That was a mess, wasn't it?"

"Loki looked up at Tony with a frown on his face. His eyes were red like he had been crying. "Understatement," Loki rasped, pushing his wet hair out of his face with a frustrated gesture.

"I can be a bit of an ass sometimes," Tony said simply. "I get out of control when in public."

Loki looked up at him and there was a seriousness in his face that worried Tony. "You could have warned me about that," Loki said softly.

"Yeah, I know, bad planning on my part, but I am just so excited that I get you to myself that I kind of went overboard."

"Tony, I am sorry that I may have overreacted, but I am trying to figure things out. Things about myself that I have tried to hide for quite some time," Loki said, staring down at the city that stretched below.

"You know, you can always talk to me. I know that today I did not really prove myself as worth it for that kind of thing, but if you have something secret that you really need to talk about I am here for you," Tony said slowly, trying to let Loki know that he meant it.

Loki sighed, his shoulders slumping more. "What is my purpose, Tony? I am a god that doesn't belong anywhere, that has no real purpose anymore. I do not belong on Earth even though I am human right now. I do not belong on Asgard even though I grew up there. I do not belong in Jotunheim where I was born. I know that you have taken me in and care for me, but I am not doing anything of worth here. I am a monster that not even the monsters want."

"But you have people who care for you. Whether or not you want to believe it, your family cares for you, the people that you grew up with care for you, and I care for you," Tony said, placing a hand on Loki's shoulder in comfort. "It's up to you to decide what you want, and you can't let anybody tell you what you should do."

Loki looked at him, and Tony felt as if he was looking right through him, trying to see if Tony was being truthful, if he really meant it. Loki looked back down at his hands again. "You have never seen me in my true form," he said finally.

"Your true form?"

"I have talked to you about my true heritage, have I not?"

"Yes, you're a frost giant, correct?"

"I am. And when I use those powers I….look slightly different," Loki said slowly.

Tony's brow furrowed, not really understanding what Loki was getting at. "You grow a mustache or something?"

Loki shook his head, a smirk playing on his face involuntarily. "No, not exactly. When I get my magic back I shall show you," Loki said.

Tony didn't really care what this 'true form' looked like, just that Loki was happy, and he really hadn't meant for the press conference to anger and humiliate Loki so much. Tony wrapped an arm around Loki's waist and pulled the god tightly to his side. Loki leaned his head against Tony's shoulder.

"Just to let you know, Stark, I really dislike your fans," he said softly.

"Yeah, I dislike most of them too." He felt Loki chuckled against his shoulder, and for the moment everything was peaceful, out in the rain overlooking the city with his favorite god leaning on his side, laughing at a dumb joke that he had just said. He hoped that it would stay perfect and that he would stop messing things up. Not likely, though.

**Thanks for reading and please review!**


	19. Not a Monster

**Hey guys! Well, I never would have believed how many reviews this story is getting, and it makes me sooo happy! A huge thanks to all of the people who favorited, alerted, and reviewed my story... It just fills me to the brim with...something... Anyways... enjoy!**

The week went by a good amount faster than either Loki or Stark expected, and over time they got into a routine together, one that felt right. Loki now only used his room for his clothing and an occasional nap if he wanted one since Stark had nearly insisted that Loki share the room with him. Loki had to admit that the idea was appealing, and his virtually nightly nightmares were not as strong when he was sharing the bed with Stark.

Soon Thor was back, granting Loki his powers with a simple wave of his hand. In a rush of green sparks Loki was back to his normal godlike self, changing into his Asgardian clothing just for the fun of it. It felt good to have that familiar rush of magic over his fingers and under his skin, and it had been a really long time since he had worn the traditional cape and armor outfit. It made him feel like he was back in his own skin; like he was ready for anything. The little misconceptions he had near the beginning of the week about Stark seemed foolish now, once he was no longer helpless and relying on Stark to make sure he didn't get eaten up in the human world.

"Brother, I want you to know that I am proud of you, and that I will be keeping an eye on you through Heimdall to make sure you are well," Thor said before he left, putting his hand on the back of Loki's neck in his usual sign of affection. "Do keep out of any trouble."

Loki nodded, still not liking the closeness that Thor initiated all the time. Stark, who was drinking something in the kitchen, chuckled. "You know, Thor, if you want your little brother to keep out of trouble then you shouldn't leave him with me," he said, sipping at the drink.

Thor laughed his booming laugh. "But I trust you, Son of Howard. You have been able to save Loki before, so if you do get into more trouble I trust you to get both of you out of it. And Loki is good at fending for himself with his magic."

Thor shook Stark's hand one last time, hugged Loki one last time, and then disappeared using the tesseract. Loki was still giddy at the power that the magic was giving him and teleported so that he was standing right in front of Stark with a wicked grin on his face. He grabbed Stark's arm, and in the blink of an eye they were on the roof of Stark Tower overlooking the brilliant nighttime city.

"Whoa," Stark breathed next to him. The roof was not very large considering the very top floors of Stark Tower were smaller than the bottom ones. Stark stood closer to Loki in case he lost his balance and needed to grab on to something. Hopefully that something would catch him. He was okay with heights as long as he had his suit, which he did not, and they were _very_ high up.

"For a human-made place it is rather beautiful," Loki said, moving his hand that he had gripped on Stark's arm down so that he could lace their fingers together. The wind up this high swept through his hair, making it lick at his face and swirl around his head. That combined with his renewed magic and returned Asgardian clothing made him feel very powerful and just _right. _

Stark had turned and looked at him, and their eyes met. "S'not the only beautiful thing around here," Stark said softly. "You should put that wicked helmet back on. That thing is cool," Stark said, smiling.

Loki chuckled, and there was a golden buzz of light. He smiled, loving the feeling of having his helmet back on. It was the one thing that really defined him, the one thing that was solely his and his alone. When someone saw the horned helmet they thought of Loki the God of Mischief. Nobody else wore his helmet.

"That is one sweet piece of armor, Reindeer Games. Can I try it on?"

Loki froze. "Why?"

"Because it's awesome, and I was just wondering how it feels; if it's heavy, because it looks very heavy."

Loki supposed it would be okay to allow Stark to try on his helmet. They had pretty much shared everything else… And Loki trusted Stark with his life at this point. Loki lifted the helmet off his head slowly and handed it over to Stark. Stark took the helmet gingerly, a smile on his face.

"This is much lighter than I thought it would be," he said, putting it on his head. "This is sweet! Have you ever just lowered your head and rammed somebody with it?"

"I cannot say that I have," Loki mumbled, staring at Stark. He sure looked odd in the traditional Asgardian helmet, especially with the modern, human goatee that he had. Loki suddenly got an idea. He waved his hand at Stark and there was a rush of sparks. Stark looked down in astonishment to find that he was also wearing traditional Asgardian armor, including a cape and boots that were in a red and gold pattern.

"Whoa," Stark managed to say, bending his head back to look at the red cape that was caught in the wind.

"You look ravishing," Loki murmured, surprised by how good Stark looked in the armor. He supposed that Stark was just one of those people that looked good in anything. Loki waved his hand again and his helmet reappeared on his own head. One more wave and Stark was back in his normal t-shirt and jeans combo.

"You seem to be happy to have your magic back," Stark chuckled.

"Of course. Everything is better with a little magic," Loki responded. He leaned down to the shorter man and kissed him softly, allowing a few sparks of magic to jump at the contact, which had both of them gasping and leaning into each other. Loki's outer armor fizzled away, including his helmet, and he was back in his more casual Asgardian outfit. Loki decided that maybe being up here on the roof was not such a good idea when you were not paying attention to anything but the person kissing you. He may have been magic, but it would require lots of magic to heal from a fall this high, especially if both of them fell. He transported both of them into the bedroom, the landing causing them both to topple onto the large bed.

"Yeah, magic does seem to make things better, doesn't it?" Stark mumbled as Loki kissed from his jawline down his neck. He stopped and pulled Loki back, looking at the god with a look of concern. "That sickness you got, there's no chance that you will get it again, is there?" Stark asked urgently.

Loki shook his head. "Of what I have learned of the sickness, you can only receive it once. And I am also making sure to employ the proper safety techniques that I neglected to use when I was saving you," Loki assured Stark. He was not one to make the same mistakes over again if he could help it.

"You said something about showing me your 'true form' or something when you got your magic back?" Stark asked before Loki was able to kiss him again. Loki froze, the thought of that now seeming much more daunting now that he was able to do it. He was worried what Stark would think of him, Stark who didn't 'settle'.

"Yes, of course," Loki said, and removed himself from on top of Stark and sat up, Stark following suit and also sitting up in the bed. It would not do well for Stark to have skin contact with him when he was in his Jotun form. Stark would get hurt. "Just to let you know, Tony, you may not touch me when I am in this form. You would get frostbite."

Stark nodded.

Loki closed his eyes and allowed himself to lose the 'human' façade. There was the feeling of cool water running along his skin, and when he opened his eyes again he knew that he was in his Jotun form. He looked closely at Stark, judging his reaction. At first Stark just stared at him intently, his eyes slightly wider than normal, but then a smile broke across his face.

"You know, when you said that you looked different when you used you ice powers I thought that you, like, got a different face or grew a beard or something, but this, this is…amazing," Stark said in awe.

Loki looked down at his hands in embarrassment. "Amazing? Really? Most humans run away when they see a monster."

"Loki," Stark said softly, causing Loki to look back up at him. His smile had gone to be replaced with a serious expression that he did not wear very often. "You are not a monster. I have seen quite a few monsters that just happen to be human. Just because you turn blue and have red eyes when you conjure a little ice does not make you a monster."

Loki felt his eyes tear up, and he lowered his head again. "Sentiment, Tony, not something one hears from you quite often."

"Yeah, well, you better un-ice yourself so that I can touch you, because I might just risk the frostbite if you don't hurry up."

Loki smiled and did as he was told for once.

XxX

Tony had been astonished by how beautiful and powerful Loki looked when he was in his frost giant form, and had not been lying in the least bit when he told Loki how cool he thought it to be. It made him sad to think that Loki thought of himself as a monster. Monsters were things that had no feelings; that killed without caring, that tortured, that didn't love. Loki may have killed a few people and tried to take over the world, but Tony had found out that Loki did regret doing those things and the amount of sorrow that came out of him when he was speaking of his home or how he didn't belong anywhere was painful. Someone who had those many feelings bottled inside of them was not a monster. Someone who gave a person as much happiness and fulfillment that Loki gave Tony was not a monster; at least not in Tony's eyes.

Both Loki and Tony woke up to a massive thunderstorm that shook the walls and lit up the room. Tony groaned and looked at the digital clock next to him. It was frickin' three in the morning. Tony noticed that he was missing his pajamas again, and realized that he was going to have to ask Loki to either stop making his clothes disappear, or 'reappear' them, because he was going to run out of his t-shirts and jeans, and he really didn't want to go shopping.

Tony turned in bed to find that Loki was sitting straight up in the bed and staring intently out the large window with a slight look of apprehension on his face.

"What's up, Frosty?" Tony asked him, also sitting up.

Loki sighed, and his tension relaxed slightly. "I've never really liked thunderstorms," Loki murmured, leaning back on the pillows.

"Does it have something to do with the fact that your brother is the God of Thunder?" Tony asked knowingly.

"That might be it," Loki said, smiling. "There is no reason to worry about that being him, but I still get rather nervous no matter what my mind is telling me."

Another extremely loud crash echoed through the walls of the building and Loki jumped, and then cringed at his involuntary response.

"Hey, everyone has unnatural fears," Tony said, shrugging and laying back on the bed next to Loki. "Mine is being thrown off of the top floor by angry Norse gods, yours is a fear of thunderstorms. Both slightly practical fears."

Loki chuckled and snuggled down next to him, and Tony put his arms around the God of Mischief, pulling him even closer. They spent the rest of the storm like that, and both eventually drifted off to sleep.

**Review... or I shall... stare at you with menace through the computer screen... **


	20. Happy Happy

**Oh my gosh! Chapter 20, can you believe it? This is by far the longest fic I have ever writting and by far my favorite. I'm not sure how much longer I want to make this, but there are still a few things that I want to happen, so there are a few more chapters in its future. Thank you to all my readers, this has just been so much fun!**

Now that Loki had his powers back, Tony thought it okay to fly back to Malibu. He had grown quite accustomed to Stark Tower, but his real home was in California, and he really did need to get back to work. Now that he had more knowledge about his reactor technology and how close it was to magic he could go even further in his clean energy campaign, putting himself even higher than his already struggling opponents.

Since Pepper was the CEO of the company there was less paperwork and formal things for him to do, and he could focus on his experiments in the workshop more than he would have been able to, which was an unforeseen perk of handing over the reins of his company as a dying man.

It had taken a while for Tony to find everything that he wanted to pack to take back with him, and Loki had sat on the bed staring at him with an amused expression on his face. The small amount of things that Loki needed were packed in one small bag in the blink of an eye, and Tony suspected the god had cheated using magic. Not that Tony wouldn't cheat given the chance, but it still bugged him that Loki was making him suffer through the terrible process of packing. When they finally got everything that they needed packed and ready to go they hailed a taxi and made their way to the airport, where a private Stark jet would be waiting for them.

"You know, I could just teleport us to your other home," Loki said as they exited the taxi.

"Yes, but you have never been on a private jet before, and it is an experience that you will never forget," Tony commented as they made their way to the small jet on the runway.

They boarded the jet using the small walkway that was folded down and stepped inside to find Happy sitting in one of the seats with a huge smile on his face. "Tony!" he yelled, giving Tony a large bear hug that he was not able to get away from. Happy pulled away, noticing that they were not alone, that Loki was standing behind them looking awkward.

"Hey, Happy, this is my…um…friend, Loki," Tony said, ushering Loki further into the jet. "Loki, this is my…personal assistant, and chauffer, Happy Hogan."

Happy held out his hand to shake with Loki, and Loki seemed to take it reluctantly. Once that slightly awkward moment was over, Happy startled talking Tony's ear off about what had been happening back home since Tony was in New York and how boring everything had been without him. They all sat down in the leather seats, Happy sitting across from Tony at the little table and Loki sitting next to Tony across the aisle. Loki hadn't said a word since they had boarded the jet and was sitting there silently staring out the window as the jet sped down the runway.

Happy noticed that Tony was no longer looking at him, and also looked over at Loki. "So, Loki, is it? How do you know Tony?" Happy asked Loki, trying to establish some sort of conversation with the god.

Loki glanced over at them and then sighed. "Well, he assisted in stopping me from taking over the world."

Happy's mouth was slightly open, and he gave Tony a confused look. "What?"

A smile curved on Loki's mouth, and he continued on, unphased. "I went back to my home realm and was going to be put in a cell for a long time, but then the same creatures that I led to attack New York wanted revenge, so they came and attacked my home. I barely escaped with my life, and was mortally wounded when I arrived here on Earth. I landed in Stark Tower and Tony saved my life. I have been staying with him since."

Happy opened and closed his mouth a few times. "Realm?" he finally managed.

"Yes, I am from the Realm Eternal, Asgard, home of the gods," Loki explained, examining his nails in disinterest.

Tony liked the astonished look that Happy was giving the both of them, and decided that he would go right along with it. "He's not lying, you know."

Happy caught on to the one thing that he could pick up on. "You helped and harbored a known criminal, one that you fought?"

Tony shrugged. "He was almost unconscious and was bleeding all over my floor. I didn't really have much else to do with him, and he was not a US criminal anymore. We gave him to Asgard for punishment, and the king there allowed him to go free."

"How long ago did this happen?"

Tony ticked off the time in his head. "About two and a half months ago."

"And he is still with you? And coming back to Malibu with you?"

"Well, he helped on an Avengers project and that ate up some time. And, we're kind of seeing each other."

Happy choked heavily on the large swig of coffee that he had just put in his mouth, and then proceeded to stare at Tony with, first, an expression of suspicion, and then dawning horror. "You're not kidding, are you?" he said.

"No, as much as Tony likes to fool around and joke, this is not one of his tricks. I have to admit that it would be a funny one if it was a trick," Loki said, smiling knowingly at Tony.

"But, I don't understand, Tony," Happy said, nonplussed. "Does Pepper know about this?"

"Yeah, it took Pepper some time, but she gave us her blessing," Tony responded. "After she got over thinking that I had gone crazy she decided that we were good together and that there was no stopping it."

Happy visible relaxed, even if he was still shaken. If Pepper was in on Tony's little schemes then there couldn't be anything _that_ wrong with them. Pepper always saw to it that Tony was alive and well. And it wasn't for him to try to talk Tony out of something. That was a feat that almost nobody could pull off and stay sane.

"I really did think you were more of a ladies' man," Happy mumbled as he sipped his coffee.

"The ladies need a break from Tony Stark," Tony said cheerily. "If not a permanent reprieve."

"Yeah, Tony, say that to comfort yourself," Happy said, staring out the window in thought.

The rest of the flight was a good amount more comfortable then the first thirty minutes now that the proverbial ice had been broken. After Tony had told Loki that they could trust Happy with secret information Loki startled talking all about his home, magic, and how he had gotten to where he was now. Loki was talented at weaving stories, his words taking life and making Tony feel like he was there with the Chaos God, feeling the hopelessness and anger that Loki had felt. Even though Tony knew the story, it was still interesting to hear how Loki had fallen off the bride in Asgard and ended up an outcast with nowhere to go. The Other brought him in and bargained with him about using the tesseract to open a portal to Earth and take over using their Chitauri. Loki talked about how he had been deep in anger and resentment and needed an outlet, about how none of that anger was within him anymore.

He was without a place for quite some time, waiting to find somewhere he could go where they would not resent him for his heritage and his actions. It was almost as a last resort that he had found himself with the Other and started making plans with them. It was seen as his last beacon of hope, of purpose. His failure had not been much of a shock to him, as he had known that the whole idea of taking over the world was not the best one, but that seemed just the right bargain to make. The only downside was the fact that the Chitauri would search him out to exact their revenge if he should fail, and that had been what had happened when he had landed with Tony.

"So basically, landing in Stark Tower was the best thing to have happened to me. I have regained a little bit of purpose in my life and am no longer seen as the monster that tried to take over the Earth," Loki finished.

"Whoa," Happy whispered, pretty much summing up what Tony felt as well. It was a heartbreaking thing, Loki's story, and to see how much better he was now was quite an amazing thing. Thor had told Tony all of Loki's story, but hearing it from Loki's mouth made it more real and tragic.

"So, magic is real and all?" Happy asked.

Loki smiled, and his clothing fizzled to reappear as his Asgardian armor, helmet and all. It was odd seeing him like this in the modern surrounding that was Tony's private jet. Happy's eyes widened. "Whoa."

Loki chuckled and his clothing went back to normal. "Had it not been for my magic, Tony would be quite dead."

Happy looked over at Tony. "Explain."

"During the Avengers project a building fell on top of the both of us and cracked my arc reactor. He pulled me out of the building and used his magic to power the device," Tony explained, and then pulled back his jacket to reveal the glowing circle under his shirt that was now glowing green.

"Whoa."

"This human is a genius," Loki said, pointing a thumb at Happy, who glared at him. Happy turned back to Tony.

"Yeah, he does remind me of you."

XxX

That afternoon Tony took Loki on the grand tour of his Malibu mansion, showing him the workshop last, knowing that Loki would probably like that the most. He was not wrong, either. Tony punched in the passcode to the glass door and it slid open, waving Loki inside with a flourish.

"Welcome to the place where I practically live my life," Tony said, and he couldn't help the smile that camped on his face at being back in his workshop. He also loved the look of awe that was on Loki's face at seeing the Iron Man suits lining the one wall, the huge bank of computers, and the large worktable that was littered with the many projects that Tony was working on.

"Welcome home, sir," JARVIS chimed in.

"It's good to be back," Tony said, and he walked over to his bank of computers. They were all showing different model sports cars, but when he waved his hand they became the latest designs that he was working on, including the suit designs that he had started working on over in New York. JARVIS had transferred the files here no problem, and he pulled a few up and started making alterations immediately.

"These computers are even more advanced than the ones in New York," Loki commented, walking up to stand beside Tony.

"Told you," Tony said, glancing at Loki with a smile on his face, and then turning back at his computer with a frown. "Why can't I seem to get this right?" he mumbled, starting at his suit design. He could not for the life of him figure out what he was missing.

"What are you trying to achieve?" Loki asked him, peering at the projections.

"Well, when I fell out of the portal after depositing the nuke there, I was unconscious from lack of oxygen. If Bruce hadn't of grabbed me out of the air I would have died. I am trying to figure out a way for the suit to land me safely without needing me to guide it."

Loki scratched his chin, thinking. "I might have a few suggestions," Loki said, and then he proceeded to fiddle with the projection of the Iron Man suit for a few minutes, and then turned to the programming for the suit's computer system and changed a few things. He leaned back from it with a smile on his face. "That should work."

Tony looked at it closely at what Loki had changed, and then looked back at Loki with his mouth open in surprise. "Okay, mister Norse God. How in the world? How can you, a god who barely has any experience with technology, fix the programming and mechanics of my suit when even I, Tony Stark, genius, can't?"

Loki shrugged. "I was blaringly obvious what was wrong with it. You hadn't matched up the new programming with the blasters just right, and now that you have that new energy in your arc reactor magic can come into play a little bit, of which _I_ am the expert."

Tony scratched the side of his face, blinking a few times. "Well, you sure showed me," he mumbled, turning off his computers with a wave of his hand. He didn't like that little smug grin that Loki was giving him, and Tony decided that Loki would pay for it later; he just needed to figure out how. Tony and Loki left the workshop, the lights automatically turning off as they left. Tony would alter the suit tomorrow when he wasn't feeling so jetlagged.

**So, people, I am going to ask you a question, for once. Is there anything that you would like to see happen in this fic? If there is, review and tell me, and if it is good enough I will put it in here! If it was your idea that I put in here you will get a dedication in my author's message at the beginning of the chapter! So, please let me know...**


	21. Dancing Queen

**Thank you for all of the ideas that you gave me. Though a few of you thought a beach scene would be a good idea (and I do too) I decided to go with Musa Silver-Hawk's idea of a dancing scene at a gala. That was just what I needed to get to the next major plot point. To any of you who were worried that the plot would only go where you had to tell me, that is not the case. I knew what needed to come next, I just needed a filler to get there. So thanks again to Musa Silver-Hawk, and all others who offered up some pretty good ideas. And also all readers, reviewers, or favoriters, you guys are great. Anyways... back to the story, enjoy!**

Stark put down the welder that he had been working with and pulled off his goggles with a look of triumph on his face. "That should do it," he said happily, picking up back piece of his suit that he had just adjusted the boosters on.

"Is there any way that you could test it before putting it into effect?" Loki asked as Stark refitted the piece to his suit.

"We could go out and do a test run. There's just the fact that I would have to go completely limp and fall from a really high height and allow it to land me. I will have to be extremely quick if it doesn't work."

"Even if you do crash, which is quite unlikely given my calculations, I can heal you," Loki said, standing up from the chair that he had been sitting in to observe Stark as he worked on the suit. Loki had not felt the need to help out on the welding and mechanics part. That just wasn't his thing.

"Sir, I would like to inform you of the party tonight," JARVIS chimed in.

"Party?" Stark asked. "This is a new one on me."

"It is a large clean energy campaign and they are hosting a gala tonight, downtown. You are expected to represent Stark Enterprises, as Pepper is not available, sir."

Stark grumbled to himself. "Why is this the first I am hearing about this?"

"It is not, I told you a month ago, sir. You elected to ignore me, and when I told you last week you nodded, but you must have forgotten."

Stark grumbled some more, and then he turned to Loki. "Well, I know the last time we were out with the reporters it ended quite badly, but this time they will have plenty of other big-shots to bother. Would you like to be my date?"

Loki really wasn't one for lavish parties and large crowds, as he had had many of them when he was a child, being son to the throne and all, but he had to admit that the idea of accompanying Stark to this event sounded quite nice. And he expected that Stark had learned his lesson from the last time that Loki had been in public with him. If he hadn't learned his lesson… well, Loki would see to it that he did.

"I accept your invitation and shall accompany you to this event," Loki said, nodding slightly.

"JARVIS, what time is this thing?" Stark asked.

"It starts at eight o'clock tonight, sir," JARVIS responded.

Stark checked his watch. "Well, that totally gives us time to test the new software!" Stark said happily. "Come on, Reindeer Games, let's see how precise your calculations were!"

XxX

Loki was currently standing on the roof of Stark's mansion squinting up into the sunlight, trying to keep an eye on Stark in his suit from where he was standing. Come to think of it, this was the stupidest idea ever. At least Loki had communications with Stark, having had a little communicator shoved into his hands by the grinning billionaire.

"Tony, let's get this over with. Stop fooling around up there and do what you need to," Loki said irritably over the comm.

"Alright, alright," Stark responded. "Now usually to trigger the auto-pilot the suit would have to read my vitals and see that I am unconscious, but I am going to trigger it manually today since I am perfectly conscious."

"Obviously."

"Yeah, yeah, so, here goes nothing," he said, and with that Loki saw the shining gold and red suit start falling from the sky. It had fallen only a few meters when the blasters took over, slowing his decent to a safe pace. If one didn't know that Stark was supposed to be unconscious one would think that he had full control of the suit. The system landed him gently on his back a few feet away from where Loki was standing.

"See, Stark? My calculations were perfectly correct," Loki said, walking over to Stark who was still lying on the ground. Loki kneeled down next to him. "Now, now, Tony, no pouting," he said, tapping on the mask of Stark's helmet. There was no response whatsoever. "Come on, Tony, stop fooling around, we have to get ready for the gala, remember?" Loki began to get worried. What was Stark doing, or was he really hurt? Could there really have been something wrong with his calculations? "Stark!" Loki said, shaking the metal shoulders of Stark's suit, trying to get him to wake up, or whatever it was this was. "Get up, you fool!"

He was about to summon magic to do _something_ when the mask of his helmet lifted up to reveal a laughing Stark. "I totally got you!" he snickered as he pulled himself to his feet.

"That was not in the least bit funny," Loki said, crossing his arms and pulling his best pouting look, which was very good, if he said so himself. "And I knew that you were playing dead, _Stark_."

"You fell for it, hook, line, and sinker," Stark said matter-of-factly as he walked, still in his suit, to the door that led inside from the roof.

"How dare you play a trick on the Trickster God?" Loki hissed, walking faster to catch up with Stark. "You could have just started a war that you have no hope of winning."

"No hope of winning, eh?" Stark said, halting in his walk for a second to turn and look at Loki with an eyebrow raised. "What makes you so sure of yourself?"

Loki made a face that suggested it was obvious why he was so sure of himself. "Stark, you may be blind, but I am the _Trickster God_. Doesn't that explain everything in itself?"

"Well, that's just a title. All that other mythology is wrong about you, right? You do not have children, right?"

Loki huffed. "The children thing is a lie, yes, but I am still the God of Lies and the Trickster and a Frost Giant. There is nothing that can change that. You have only seen just a taste of the horridness that I possess, and it still lurks somewhere within me. Those were not myths; I can still teeter off of that edge, Stark." He really didn't want to teeter off of that edge, but it was there, waiting to turn him back into a hateful villain, the creature that had been so disliked. He sighed and ran a frustrated hand through his hair.

Somehow their simple little argument had turned to something deeper than either had been prepared for. Green eyes looked deep into brown and both knew that all of this could blow up in a second, one wrong thing said, one step taken too far.

"I am not underestimating you, Loki-Dokey, I was just joking around. Didn't mean to piss you off or anything," Stark said, and Loki deflated. Stark really hadn't done anything, was just telling Loki that he wasn't as evil as the titles suggested, but Loki didn't want Stark to let down his guard completely. Loki hadn't let down his own guard completely, just waiting to feel those hopeless, revengeful thoughts. He hadn't felt them in quite some time, but he was sure that one little trigger would flip the switch. Loki was on his toes, trying to watch ahead for said trigger.

"Sorry, Tony, I just…." He shook his head and followed Stark back inside the mansion, feeling less cheery than he did when they had made their way out. Stark used his machines to un-suit and soon was back to wearing just a t-shirt and jeans, leaning on one of his tables, rubbing his hand over his face in a weary gesture.

"Just to let you know, Reindeer Games, you may be the God of Lies, but I am Tony Stark," he said, making outward motions with his hand to suggest that this was a big deal. "And here on Earth _that_ is a big deal."

Loki smiled. Stark did know how to cheer Loki up, and that was a feat in itself.

"You still up for partying tonight?" Stark asked, checking his watch.

Loki shrugged. "I think I could use for a little partying. And other people that aren't you. No offense, but your head is rather overblown," Loki said, not really meaning it, as other people bored him to death, but wanting to poke at Stark.

"Alrighty then," Stark said, rubbing his hands. "I may also be the god of partying," he said, standing up and dragging Loki along so that they could go get ready.

XxX

"This reminds me of that event that I attended in Germany," Loki said, examining the large crowd and the many expensive cars that the valets were parking. The people stepping out of these cars were expensively dressed, Tony and Loki among them. Loki had materialized an expensively tailored suit with a designer tie that really brought out his green eyes and black hair. Tony kept flashing looks at him, because _dang_ he looked dashing.

"Yeah, but don't go beating people with a stick," Tony grumbled, remembering all too well what had happened in Germany. "And don't go beating up old men."

Loki laughed and allowed Tony to take him by the arm and usher him into the large, beautiful building that the event was taking place in. It was decorated stylishly and was already teeming with the rich, beautiful, and powerful. Tony was used to these events, having had to go to them all the time, but Loki was staring around with interest, never having been to a human event of such size.

"The music in Germany had been a little more tasteful," he muttered, listening to the more modern music that was playing in the background as people mingled and sipped on drinks that passing waiters were carrying before the actual proceedings began. A waiter dressed in a tuxedo stopped in front of the pair that was just entering. "Drink, gentlemen?" he asked, holding a tray of some sort of alcohol in fancy stemmed glasses.

"Yes, don't mind if I do," Tony said, taking two drinks off of the tray, and handing one to Loki, who took it hesitantly.

"You know, Tony, this could be poisoned," Loki said suspiciously, sniffing at the contents of his glass.

"You're right," Tony said, and then took a large swig. He smiled at the frowning god. "It's not poisoned, see?"

Loki just grumbled and took a sip out of his own glass. The two made their way back to the bar and dance floor, Tony having to stop now and then to shake somebody's hand or introduce his 'friend.' He had taken to telling everyone that Loki was indeed his date. He just loved the look of astonishment that graced everyone's faces, to be replaced with a glassy smile or quick goodbye. Some of the women stared at Loki with flirty looks until Tony took care of that with a peck on Loki's cheek or a comment about how Loki was one of the only people that was able to tolerate living in the same house as Tony Stark. And this time Tony made sure that Loki enjoyed it as much as he did. They made a game out of making comments of the people that they saw there, Tony mostly giving Loki all of the dirt he knew on these people, or about how they had gotten to as rich as they were now. Loki enjoyed knowing that all of these pretty faces had something to hide, much like he himself did.

The night went by in a whirlwind, Loki seeing more faces than he could ever remember or even care about. He had been dragged to all different corners of the large party area and had drank more than too many drinks that Tony had shoved into his hands. Tony really was the life of the party, he had to admit. He laughed at the right time, told the right jokes, and knew the right people. He introduced Loki as if he was the best thing ever, and people believed him, smiling friendlily at Loki and introducing themselves happily. The best part about it was when they left and Tony said something snarky to him about the people that had just left.

"You know," Tony said, looping his arm through Loki's. "The only think we haven't done yet is dance." There was something very appealing about the idea of dancing with the tall, graceful god, and Tony really wanted to try it out.

"Hmm…" Loki said.

"Come on, it'll be fun!"

"Not if you step on my feet. You seem to be a little inebriated." But Loki allowed Tony to drag him over to the dance floor, which already held many dancing couples. The song that was on at the moment was a nice, slower one, one perfect for an elegant dance with an elegant partner, which Tony had. As soon as Tony pulled Loki closer to him he noticed that Loki had a mischievous smile pulling at the corners of his mouth. Tony didn't have to wonder what that meant for long, because Tony found out as soon as they started moving.

Loki must have learned a thing or two about dancing during his childhood as prince of Asgard, because he was twirling Tony around the floor with ease, weaving in and out of the other couples and stepping in perfect time to the music. He didn't even need to watch where he was going; his eyes were locked tightly to Tony's, and Tony marveled at the twinkle that he saw there, those bright green eyes standing out so marvelously from the pale skin and dark hair, and shining brightly in the mood lighting that had been placed about the room. They were easily the most skilled pair there, and that was saying something when in the midst of this rich crowd. Nobody noticed them though, and Tony almost suspected that Loki had put a spell on them, keeping unwanted eyes off of their strangely intimate moment. He would have also thought he would get dizzy with the amount of spinning and twirling they were doing, but Tony just felt electrified by the feel of Loki leading him this easily. He suspected that this also had something to do with magic.

The song ended all too soon, and Loki easily transitioned from one song to the next. This song was more of a slow dance than the other one, and Loki pulled Tony tightly against him in a fluid motion that still kept in time with his now gentle rhythm.

"I didn't know you had such a flair for dancing," Tony said softly, still staring up at the magnificent god that he was pressed against.

"The one princely thing that I bested Thor at," Loki said, a smile still pulling at the corners of his mouth. He easily maneuvered them around a couple that had _definitely_ had too much to drink and continued his small, elegant steps.

Whatever Tony had just been about to say left mind as those _eyes_ pierced him. Why had he never looked so closely at his eyes before? They were downright dazzling now. Tony leaned up to kiss Loki, but before he could do so Loki twirled him under his arm with ease, pressing Tony back up to his chest in one smooth movement. Loki was barely suppressing a smile, and Tony just knew that he had done that on purpose. So Tony tried to kiss him again, with the same result.

"Ach, you!" Tony complain. Loki laughed and kissed Tony sweetly to make up for it. And Tony couldn't stay mad at him.

Suddenly something that had been bugging Tony for a while came to the forefront of his mind, especially after seeing how vibrant and gorgeous the god in front of him was. And now that they were here in the middle of this dance floor, so utterly alone in the crowd, he decided he would bring it up.

"Loki, you're immortal, right?"

Loki seemed a little startled by the question. "Yes, if somebody doesn't kill us we live forever," Loki answered, searching Tony's eyes for the reason behind this new questioning.

"Well, I'm very mortal and am not getting any younger," Tony mumbled, breaking his eye contact with Loki. Then he heard Loki chuckle, and his gaze snapped right back to the god.

"Tony, do you really think that I wouldn't have thought of that?"

"Uh…"

"Tony, I am far too selfish to allow my possessions to… move on, shall I say?"

"What are you talking about?"

"It's comical that you haven't noticed yet," Loki said, and kept explaining at Tony's death glare. "Ever since I knew that this would last longer than a few days I put a spell on you. As long as you are with me, Tony Stark, you will not age. I can't believe you think that I am so daft as to have not thought about that dilemma."

Tony was speechless. He was not aging, was immortal as long as he was with Loki. It hit him hard. He could be with Loki _forever_ if he wanted to. Geez this was commitment. But Loki hadn't said that he was bound to Loki forever, he had just said that however long that Tony wanted to be with Loki, he could.

"That's some magic you got there," Tony mumbled. Loki laughed in response, but Tony silenced that laugh with a kiss; a kiss that became deeper and more urgent, and they clung to each other tightly. The combination of their close bodies and the leftover euphoria of the dance was overwhelming. They pulled away so that they could catch their breath, and Tony realized that what he wanted to do right now was _so_ not acceptable in a crowded room.

"Would you like me to teleport us back to your mansion?" Loki asked, obviously on the same wavelength as Tony. Tony nodded, not caring that people might see them disappear, not caring that his car was here. All that mattered right now was Loki; Loki pressed so deliciously against him.

And then they were in the bedroom at the mansion, and Loki was shoving him down on the bed, climbing on top of him, his dark hair framing his face as he stared down at Tony and his thin lips curving in that dangerous smile of his. He straddled Tony and leaned down so that his face was mere inches from Tony's. God, Loki's breath smelled delicious, despite all of the alcohol that they both had consumed that night. The smell of alcohol just drifted over top of the amazing smell that was Loki. Loki closed the distance and kissed him in a slow, tender way that elicited a moan from Tony who was barely hanging on to his lust. He had twisted his fingers tightly in the god's raven hair and had used the other hand to pull Loki tightly against him. But Loki was playing this his way. After making Tony's shirt and coat disappear he slowly traced a slim finger down from the bottom of Tony's chin south, ghosting over the arc reactor and down his stomach, his toying fingers doing crazy things to Tony's mind.

Tony moaned, needing more than Loki was currently giving him, and needing more _fast_. Loki's eyes snapped up to Tony's. He must have seen the desperation there, because he stopped being slow and teasing. And Loki must have been wanting too. There were soon no clothes to be seen and it was rather hard to tell where one ended and the other began.

Tony didn't even think about the expensive suit that had just been immaterialized, or the expensive sports car that was left in the parking lot at the gala. No, there was no room for thoughts with Loki; nothing but Loki. Afterwards, they both fell into a comfortable sleep, still twisted together, nothing waking them until the SHIELD agents came bursting into their room the next morning.

**Ahh... I love the smell of a cliffhanger in the morning...or late at night as that is the time it is now as I write this. You can yell at me in your reviews if you would like, as long as you do review... **


	22. Iron Man Pajamas

**Sorry that I did not update yesterday after leaving you such a cliffhanger. This chapter was giving me trouble and I am still not perfectly satisfied with it... It is a lot harder to tie up a fanfiction than it is to start one, and I am hoping to draw this one to a close soon... Well, enjoy!**

Tony woke with a start as shouting sounded in his ears. He sat up urgently, only just remembering that he wasn't clothed, only to find out that he was…in unfamiliar pajamas. Loki must have clothed them both the moment he knew something was amiss. His inner musings were cut off when he saw the ten or so SHIELD agents trying to rein Loki in. He was using magic to teleport out of their reach as they lunged at him with cuffs or threw jabs at him. He could have just teleported far away, but he had obviously been staying there for the sake of Tony.

Loki looked utterly feral as he fought against the hoard of black-clad agents in self-defense, and they were having a rather hard time of him. It appeared that he wasn't hurting one of them, though, and Tony could sense that this was a feat that would not have happened three months before. No, Loki would have killed them all for even looking at him strangely a few months ago.

"What is going on?" Tony shouted in rage. A few agents looked over at him, and Loki also glanced at him for a second, enough time for one of the men to slam Loki against the wall and slap cuffs over his wrists. These cuffs must have been magic-binding, because Loki was unable to do anything as they began to manhandle him out of the room.

"I asked what is going on here!" Tony shouted again, jumping up from the bed to stand in the way of the door.

And then Fury was there, pushing his way from behind Tony and into the bedroom. A few agents still had Loki held between them, and his narrowed eyes were now trained on the man with the eye patch. "You seem to be unaware of the current dilemma," Fury's deep voice boomed.

"No, I know the dilemma. You just broke into my house illegally and attacked Loki. Illegally!"

"No, Stark, that is not the dilemma. We have reason to believe that your _boyfriend _attacked hundreds of innocent civilians using creatures of some sort. And it just so happened to be at that little shindig that you were present at last night, directly after you left." Fury said, pointing sharply at Loki. If looks could kill, Fury would be pushing up some major daisies by the way Tony and Loki were staring at him.

"How is that possible? He has been here with me, not leaving my sight! And you told me that we were not under surveillance!" Tony said angrily.

"You are fraternizing with a god that destroyed New York City and almost took over the entire human race. We would have been really, really stupid to lift surveillance."

"He helped us defeat the Chitauri and saved my life," Tony reminded Fury sharply.

"Which all could have been a ruse to get on our good side just so that he could cause more chaos."

"Well, you better have some damning evidence that points to why you are here and attacking my _boyfriend_ or Iron Man is as good as _gone _from your little Avengers team."

"Don't worry, Stark. I have the footage."

XxX

They had moved into the living room where the television was and Fury had pulled up the video feed from the night before, fast-forwarding to the part when Loki and Tony teleported. Tony couldn't help but notice that there seemed to be one camera that was trained on them the whole entire night. SHIELD had been watching them just as closely, if not more closely, as they had been when Loki had first been left with Tony.

Seconds after the pair had left the party screams sounded from across the room. Guests started panicking, running as fast as they could to who-knows-where and away from whatever it was that was causing the screaming in the first place. It took Tony a while to even see what the problem was, because whatever was attacking them was not coming in sight of the cameras. So far all that was strange was a frosty layer that had formed on the floor. And then something large jumped past the camera, causing more screams from the other end of the room. There were more of the creatures, too, and they were freezing people where they stood, literally, into large blocks of ice. On the end of their arms were ice daggers and they were slashing at any humans that had not ran away fast enough. It was utter chaos.

Tony saw Loki stiffen from where he was sitting on the couch, still surrounded by the agents that had cuffed him, his arms bound behind his back and about four men keeping a solid hold on him. Loki did know something about what was happening; Tony could see it in the way his posture had tensed and the way his eyes had hardened.

"Whatever these things are they have manipulation of ice and are twice the size of a human. They also possess the ability to speak intelligently, unlike the Chitauri," Fury said. "And I do remember Thor telling us that you, Loki, are a Frost Giant. These sure look like Frost Giants to me, if the name is anything to go by."

He was staring at Loki, waiting for the god to answer. Loki sighed, and suddenly he looked much younger, smaller, and much more befitting of the Iron Man pajama pants that he was wearing. "Yes, those are Frost Giants, and yes, I am a Frost Giant, but I know nothing of their motivations for being here and I have no connections with them other than being of the same species."

Fury didn't look convinced. "They attacked a party filled with the richest and most powerful people around. You could have some reasoning for attacking them, maybe to cause a distraction of some sort, like you did the last time."

"But Loki was not at the party during that time, he was with me," Tony argued.

"Well, Stark, you are easily distracted. What a great way to distract you from the evil plans that he has set in motion," Fury said. No, Tony would not believe it. Loki had changed and would not bring a bunch of these giants onto a helpless civilian population. And Loki had told him about how he was not fond of the Frost Giants, about how he wanted nothing to do with his Jotun heritage.

"Well, since you seem so sure that I am to blame for all of this, what are you going to do with me?" Loki asked silkily.

"Take you into custody, ask you some questions, prevent you from joining your relatives."

"They are _not_ my relatives," Loki hissed dangerously, staring daggers at Fury, whose face remained impassive.

"Come on, Fury, he might be just the key to fight _against_ them, why would you lock him up?" Tony asked.

"Because the chance of him turning sides is too much of a risk. I would much rather fight these things without Loki than fighting against him too."

"So, you gonna call your precious Avengers?" Tony asked angrily.

"Only time will tell if we need them, but I am hoping that we will not."

"So, Mr. Fury, what form of restraint do you have for me this time?" Loki asked as if he was asking what was for lunch.

"Oh, same cage; we repaired it from when you dropped your brother in it. The helicarrier is currently above us. The helicopter to take us there is on the roof. Any other questions?"

"No," both Tony and Loki said at the same time.

XxX

"I think true power would like a magazine this time," Loki said to Fury who was walking away from the 'cage' to give orders to his men. He didn't really want a magazine, but he liked the bewildered expression that momentarily graced Fury's face before he walked away. He had had major déjà vu when the hoard of armed SHIELD agents ushered him through the helicarrier toward the containment device. This time, though, he was not smiling menacingly at anyone and had no evil plans to escape and set off the Hulk. This time he was merely annoyed.

Stark was sitting in the chair right outside the cage and glaring at the whole situation with anger and disbelief. Loki was just glad that Stark seemed to believe him through and through that he had not organized this whole thing. Loki was glad for the trust, but he couldn't help but think that Stark really should be a bit more leery about him. He used to be a crazy villain and should be treated with just a little questioning. He hadn't organized this, but he thought he might know what it was about. He would tell Fury when he was interrogated more thoroughly.

He felt ridiculous standing in the middle of the glass tube wearing the flannel Iron Man pajamas, socks, and a t-shirt that had the Avengers on it. Why they had come to mind first when fitting himself with pajamas quickly, he had no idea. They hadn't even let him change out of them, and these stupid handcuffs prevented him from doing any magic at all.

"Hey, I really do like the choice of pajamas, very fitting," Stark said, smiling good-naturedly at him. Stark was too wearing his pajamas, but his were plain sweatpants with a grey t-shirt.

"They were the first thing that came to mind when SHIELD agents randomly accosted me this morning."

"Yeah, they really could have been a little less…I don't know, intense about it?" Tony said, scratching his head. "SHIELD is pretty gung-ho when it comes to security threats."

Loki shrugged the best he could with his arms cuffed behind his back. "They should be. It worked well for them when they fought me the first time," Loki said, sitting down on the little bed at the back of the cage. "It's not like they are doing me any harm by putting me in here. The only bad thing that could possibly happen to me right now is dying of boredom. At least I can talk to you."

"So, did Fury mention where these guys were at the moment, what they are terrorizing now?" Stark asked him.

"He didn't say, but knowing them they are hiding out until the proper time to strike whatever it is they are here for."

Stark just shook his head. He was about to say something when Fury ran back up the metal steps, an urgent expression on his face. "We have a possible leader of the Frost Giants and he says that he wants to meet with the son of Laufey," Fury said quickly. Loki felt his heart sink. "And I'm pretty sure that you are the only son of Laufey around here," he said, pointing at Loki. Loki really didn't know how these Frost Giants had found out about his heritage. Only the Allfather and that direct family knew that Loki was adopted. Well, that and the entire SHIELD agency. Loki would have to look into how they knew he was one of them, especially how they knew he was Laufey's son.

"What did they say they would do if you did not allow me to speak with them?" Loki inquired.

"They said that they would destroy our large cities and topple our world," Fury stated. "Sound like anyone?"

Loki ignored that remark. "So, how are you going to do this?"

"We will keep you in cuffs and allow you to meet with them. We will have agents surrounding the area in case something goes wrong."

"These guys don't like me, even though I am the son of their deceased king. I killed him a while back saving the Allfather. You are going to keep me powerless in front of these horrid creatures out for my blood?" Loki scoffed.

"Yes."

**Please review...or I shall...eat a large box of chocolates in front of you without giving you one... through the computer screen...**


	23. Not Ideal

**Again I am sorry that it took two days to put this one up. I just wanted to make sure that this little thing went the right way. I actually wrote it and deleted it like two times, not liking what I originally wrote, sooo... Hope you enjoy the new twist!**

After some major pleading on Tony's part, Fury agreed to allow Tony to accompany Loki down there with his suit a button press away from being on and ready to go. And Tony wanted to be there with Loki, the moral support that Loki usually never had.

The harsh sun beat down on both of them as they made their way to the center of the little courtyard that they had decided to make their meeting place. It was an abandoned part of town where other people were rarely seen; a great place where there could be hidden agents on the rooftops surrounding and where no unsuspecting citizen would get killed by an angry Frost Giant.

Both Tony and Loki had communicators in their ears and were being fed updates by Fury and the other agents around on the rooftops who had a view of everything that was going on. Loki, of course, was still in his handcuffs as no amount of pleading on Tony's part had changed Fury's mind on that. Fury didn't want Loki teleporting away or something else sinister that Fury was sure he would do. Tony was just worried that they would be attacked by the monsters, and somehow Tony thought that a few agents shooting at them and one man in a metal suit would not do much good. Especially when protecting a very exposed Loki.

Déjà vu started to kick in as they stood there waiting, Loki cuffed and Tony keeping him company, except this time Loki really was cuffed and unable to do magic and the Avengers team was not with them to help. At least they had learned their lesson and were not in a building that could collapse on them. And the Frost Giants had wanted this meeting. Tony knew nothing of what it was about, though Loki seemed to know more than what he was letting on.

"Where are these guys?" Tony asked, peering around the empty area in concern and impatience.

"They like to make an entrance," Loki said simply.

"That is right, son of Laufey," something with a deep, raspy voice said, and a figure that looked to be made of the darkest of ice formed out of the shadows. It was twice the size of a human and was barely wearing anything but a few simple furs to cover up. Its eyes were bright red and it had a demonic smile twisted on its features.

"Are you the new king of Jotunheim?" Loki asked, seemingly unfazed by the sight of the creature.

"Indeed. You think yourself to be the only son of the deceased king. You would be wrong," the creature growled, smiling evilly. "Hello there, half-brother."

Loki's face pinched in a grimace, quickly to be replaced by a mask of cool indifference. Tony saw the pain there, though, and wished that he could make all of Loki's troubles go away. Now Tony knew why Loki thought himself a monster. The people of his true heritage indeed seemed quite monstrous standing here towering over them like this. Next to him Loki seemed like the most gorgeous thing ever; Tony thought that anyway, but not the point. Tony wondered what had happened to make Loki look so differently from them, as even in his Jotun form he looked nothing like the horridness that stood before them.

"Stark, you better watch out down there. This is Loki's half-brother and he may decide to side with him instead of you," Fury said through the communicator to Tony, and Tony wanted to yell back at Fury. Was he blind? Did he not see the hatred and pain that Loki was showing when looking at this creature before them? Did he not see how much Loki wanted to be rid of the binds that linked him to this thing?

"You puny mortals think that you are so secretive with your little reinforcements surrounding the area," the Frost Giant chuckled, looking at Tony and then glancing at the surrounding buildings. "Well, just be warned that you are not the only ones with reinforcements." Tony could imagine Fury barking orders at his other agents after this remark, looking for any openings where a Frost Giant might be hiding.

"What do you want with me?" Loki asked sharply.

"We would like to thank you for your assistance helping us into this realm, and we are here to collect you as you asked us to," the Frost Giant said. Tony glanced over at Loki in surprise, who was staring at the Frost Giant with his eyebrows pulled together and his mouth a thin line of confusion. That was when the thing lunged straight at Loki. Loki only had time to flinch, and Tony only had time to give a small shout of surprise before both Loki and the Frost Giant were gone in a swirl of frost.

Tony was too surprised and freaked out to hear the shouts that were resounding in his ear through the comm, courtesy of Fury, and the agents that were now out of their hiding places and scouting for any Frost Giants that were still in the area or anything fishy that might give them clues.

"Stark, are you listening to me? Get the suit on and patrol the surrounding area for sights of them. They could be doing anything!" Fury barked into his ear, and Tony shook his head to clear it. Standing here like a vegetable was not going to help the situation any.

He pressed the button on his bracelet and in a whirring of gears and a shifting of metal the suit was on. Tony jetted up into the air as fast as the boosters would allow, trying to staunch the flow of emotions that was threatening to bubble over into one big, ugly mess. Had Loki really betrayed them or was it all a misunderstanding? What were the Frost Giants doing here anyway, and why had they taken Loki with them? There were these questions and more rattling through his head, trying to keep dominance of his attention. So Tony shoved them all aside and scanned the area, looking for anything that might be of help.

"Stark, you listen to me closely. If you see a Frost Giant of any type, _including Loki_, you will not hesitate to fire. _Do you hear me?_ He is currently involved with criminals who killed dozens of people last night and are suspected of more malicious acts."

"I can't just shoot at Loki without knowing the full story!" Tony argued, feeling the beginnings of panic start to set in. "He didn't seem to know what was going on. The leader of the Frost Giants might be tricking us!"

"Stark, all of the other agents have just received the same instructions, and it would do you well to follow them. Loki could currently be planning on act that is deadly to all of us, even the whole world."

Well, if Tony wanted to get any answers out of Loki he would have to get to him first, before any of the other SHIELD agents did. The situation was getting steadily more out of hand, and Tony couldn't believe that just a few hours ago he and Loki were twirling carelessly on a dance floor without a trouble in the world, not knowing what sort of dangers they would be getting into. Tony couldn't quell the little voice inside his head that told him that Loki might have known about this all along. He was the _lie-smith_ after all and would know exactly how to craft the perfect ruse. Tony cursed out loud at the horrid turn of events. These Frost Giants could kill Loki, and SHIELD was quite sure that Loki was in on all of it and was not going to treat this like a hostage situation. Maybe that's what the leader of the Frost Giants had wanted, making Loki seem like he was working with them so that they didn't have to worry about a force trying to come in and save Loki.

All of this made Tony's head hurt and his heart hurt even more. It was horrible that he was having to doubt his trust in Loki, but the situation was one that required just a little doubt. Even if Loki was behind this Tony did not want to see the god hurt. He wanted to be able to talk to him, to understand the reasoning behind everything, and most of all to know if everything between them had been _real._ Tony's vision blurred slightly as tears threatened to spill from his eyes. With no way to wipe them, being in his suit and all, they spilled over unchecked as he flew over the Malibu area, looking for anything that could lead him to finding _his_ god. The only thing that he could find himself seeing, though, were those bright green eyes as they disappeared, fearful and panicked. No, Tony knew that Loki hadn't been lying, he couldn't have been. Tony just had a hard time telling himself that this was absolutely true.

XxX

Loki knew that the Frost Giants were planning to use him for something, he just didn't know what. The moment that the king of Jotunheim had said that he appreciated the assistance that Loki had given them in being able to make it to Midgard Loki knew what their game was. They were going to frame Loki to make it look like he was assisting them. They wanted to turn the humans against him, wanted to make sure that he was all alone with nobody there to help him. Without his magic there was no way that he was able to get away from the large creature as it grabbed him roughly and used its own version of teleportation. All that Loki was able to do was give Stark one last pleading look, trying to convey as much innocence and need for help in that gaze that he could. He still didn't know if it would work; they all knew him to be a liar. And SHIELD trusted him as far as they could throw him (Loki thought of Banner and cringed. So they could throw him pretty far). SHIELD would accuse him of betrayal almost immediately, so Loki could only hope that Stark trusted him enough to come to his rescue.

Loki was currently tied to support beam in a rundown office building who knows where while the group of Frost Giants around him plotted and taunted him. The icy bonds that they had used were biting into his skin, and the cuffs that held his magic in check were still in place. It was not ideal. What Loki heard from listening to snippets of their conversations was that they were going to use him to get back at Thor somehow for all of the wrongdoings of Asgard against Jotunheim. It really didn't sound promising.

The king pulled away from his conversation to stand in front of Loki with a malicious grin on his face. "Hello there, brother," the _thing_ hissed, its icy breath stinging Loki's face. It was amazing how the word brother had hurt him so many times before, but never as much as it did now. Thor's use of the word brother didn't hurt as much anymore after the past two months, but this was downright painful; a major reminder of what he really was.

"You are not my brother," Loki hissed, eyes narrowing in dislike.

"Whatever pleases you, little runt, because soon you will be saying whatever we want you to say," the king chuckled, but there was nothing happy about it. "As you probably have figured out, Silvertongue, is that we are planning on killing the king of Asgard, using you as our bait. He will come flying here to protect you and we will slaughter him."

"Thor fought off all of you in Jotunheim. What makes you think he will be unable to do so again?" Loki asked, raising an eyebrow.

"We will have you. He will not fight us if we threaten to kill you."

"Just kill me. Do not kill Thor. I was the one that killed your predecessor, not Thor," Loki said hastily, knowing that if this had happened a few months ago he would have not tried to defend Thor with his life. Stark really had changed him. His heart gave a pang of sorrow when he thought of Stark, probably one of the ones out there looking for him, trying to bring him in to custody. Stark most likely thought him a traitor now, a betrayer of his trust and love. Loki felt anger course through him all of a sudden. He was not going to let these things ruin what had been perfect. No, he was going to find a way out of this.

"We will not kill you if we don't have to. You will prove to be of much worth later on," the creature growled. "Am I correct to say that you have the Gatekeeper's eyes on you?" the king asked, of course referring to Heimdall.

Loki narrowed his eyes but did not answer. He would not help these _monsters_ in any way. Maybe if he was lucky Thor was not watching him, and he could just wait it out until SHIELD found this rundown building. That was when they heard thunder booming in the distance on such a bright and sunny day, and all of their gazes automatically turned to the sound.

"Looks like your king is in town."

**Mwahaha! I will hopefull have the next chapter up sooner than later as the weekend is coming up. Reviews would be much appreciated...**


	24. Nieces and Nephews

**I am very excited that this fic is going to work out to be exactly 25 chapters long! I am sad that this fic is wrapping up, but I am planning on writing another very different Frostiron fic, so keep an eye out for it. Enjoy this chapter and leave me some feedback, as always.**

Tony stared upward at the storm clouds that came out of nowhere, the flashes of lightening that lit up the sky where it had been cloudless and blue minutes before. It could only mean one thing, and Tony found himself grateful that Thor was watching them so closely. Having a God of Thunder on your side would be a plus in this situation, and the god would know more about what they were fighting against.

Tony had been planning on flying to the middle of the storm clouds to find Thor, but the aforementioned god flattened him in midair before he was able to do this, bringing them crashing heavily into the poor building below them. No matter how weather-proofed a building was it could not stand up to a man in a large metal suit and an Asgardian god hitting it at high velocities. Luckily it was a rundown office building, and they only landed through the top floor.

As soon as Tony was able to stand up Thor's hands were gripping him tightly by the shoulder's, his fingers denting in the strong metal. "Are you an idiot, Tony Stark?" the god boomed, shaking him slightly.

"No…Thor…ah," Tony coughed as the God of Thunder continued to shake him.

"You _allowed_ those Frost Giants to take Loki! He is bound and powerless to stop them from hurting him!" Thor's voice echoed across the empty space alarmingly.

"Thor…stop shaking me...I'll explain," Tony grunted, and Thor stopped, though his hands did not unclench from his shoulders. "It was Fury that kept Loki in the cuffs no matter how much pleading I did. And none of us knew what the Frost Giants wanted, and I still don't know if Loki is in danger or what is going on," Tony said, flipping his mask up so that he could look the God of Thunder in the eyes.

"It is alright, Anthony, we will find my brother and figure out what the Jotuns want with us."

"Did you happen to hear what the Frost Giant said to Loki? That he was thankful for Loki's assistance in getting them into this realm?" Tony asked.

"Yes, Heimdall told me everything that transpired, and judging by the way Loki reacted he is innocent. I feel that the Frost Giants are scheming and want us to think that Loki is to blame."

"I was really hoping you would say that. Fury is adamant that Loki is a traitor, and I really do not want to think that."

"Yes, Anthony, neither do I. We will find Loki and make sure that he is innocent. Then you and he can go back to your attempts to give me the nieces and nephews that I have always wanted."

Tony was too busy coughing to hear the slight crackle of frost as it spread along the floor beneath their feet. He did hear the low chuckle as it reverberated through the room, though.

"Hello, Metal Man and Thunderer," the Frost Giant king growled. Thor whirled around on the spot, holding up Mjölnir and growling. Tony flipped his mask back down and held up his repulsors.

"Return my brother to me and get out of this realm. You have no place here. It is under my watch," Thor threatened.

"Ah, but he is not your brother, is he? Last I heard, Asgardian, he was my brother."

Thor froze, narrowing his eyes. "Son of Laufey?"

"Yes, King of Asgard, yes," the Frost Giant responded. "Before you go swinging that giant hammer around I have a warning to give."

"And what would that be?" Thor asked warily.

"If you attempt to fight us in any way we will kill the little Frost Giant in the slowest and most painful way possible. In fact, if you attempt to evade your death in any way we will kill him."

Thor's face paled and his brows furrowed deeper. "This is all a plot to kill me?" he asked quietly.

"That and getting to keep the little sorcerer. He will be a great tool for our people in the future; a Frost Giant with the magic and knowledge of an Asgardian. What more could we ask for?"

"So, wait a minute here," Tony said, holding up a hand. "Loki never did help you get into Earth?"

"Not knowingly; he gives off a certain signature of magic that we were able to follow once his magic flared back up after he had been human for a while. We knew we wanted revenge on him for killing our king and on the Thunderer for being the king of a land that has done us so wrong, and we were given such an opportunity to do such."

Tony immediately felt horrible for thinking the worst of Loki, and at the same time felt very relieved that Loki was really and truly on their side. He muted the speakers on his helmet so that anybody around him wouldn't hear that he was talking urgently to SHIELD and Fury, hoping to get them to help in Loki's rescue. He hoped that Loki was being held somewhere close to here. The Frost Giant had not taken long to get to them after they had fallen from the sky, so that led Tony to believe that they were holding Loki close to here.

"Puny mortal?"

Tony was snapped out of the conversation he was having with the Director and returned the volume to his speaker. "What?"

"Do not even think about involving your little organization. We will kill all of those who attempt to free Loki. Understood?"

Tony merely nodded. What were they going to do now? Yeah, Fury should have called together the Avengers when they had gotten the chance. A few more superheroes to help them out would've been a good thing. Banner could have done one sweep and have all of the Frost Giants out for the count _and_ Loki in his clutches.

That was when an arrow flew through the broken window and hit the Frost Giant right in the eye. He gave a startled howl and clutched at his eye, yanking the arrow out and tossing it to the side just in time to dodge a spangled shield that the man in tights was throwing at him as he ducked through the same window.

"Hey!" Tony shouted as he assisted in shooting at the Frost Giant that was now grunting and fighting them off with all his strength. "How?" was all that Tony managed to ask.

"We all got a call as soon as those Frost Giants attacked that party last night," Steve explained. "As soon as we all showed up Fury sent us to help out. Banner and Romanoff are downstairs saving Loki. Barton is outside the window, obviously."

"Fury, you bastard, tell me why I am just hearing about the Avengers coming in!" Tony shouted through his communicator.

"We thought that you really did not need to know, as it is your _boyfriend_ that we suspected of traitorous activities."

Tony grumbled in response.

"You know, Stark, everything that I do is for the best. I really hope you understand that. Wait. On second thought, it doesn't matter if you understand that or not because I am in charge here."

Tony grumbled again and decided that Thor, Steve, and Clint had this guy under control for the time being. He flew out of the window and to the bottom floor to see if he could help Loki. When he looped through the window below he froze. There was a Frost Giant that had grabbed Loki roughly and was holding him threateningly as Natasha and Banner stood frozen, afraid to make a move lest he hurt Loki. Loki was still in those silly Iron Man pajamas and it made Tony's heart ache. Tony wondered why Banner was not 'the other guy' at the moment, but figured he hadn't 'Hulked' out before he stepped into the building to assess the situation.

Loki's eyes landed on Tony's, and Tony saw pleading there, as if he was still trying to let him know that he was innocent. Rage flooded Tony's mind at the creatures that were making all of this happen. Why couldn't everyone just leave the poor god alone? He really had suffered enough at this point.

"JARVIS, what's my power at?" he asked his computer.

"Sir, don't you remember that you have magic running your arc reactor? Surely you know that you have unlimited power?"

"Yeah, yeah, no need to get cheeky with me," Tony grumbled. He knew that these creatures were made of ice, so the Taser weapon would not do too great here, but would bullets work? It had to be worth a shot.

Tony targeted all of the Frost Giants in the room with his system and held out his arm. The bullets fired, hitting all of them. It wasn't enough to penetrate the ice completely and they were not killed, but it was enough to distract the giant holding Loki so that he was able to slip out of the behemoth's grasp and run toward the safety of the group. As soon as Loki was near enough to him, Tony grabbed him in a hug that would have hurt Loki if he wasn't a god, flipping up his mask and pulling them into a corner and out of the way as he did so.

"Oh god, Loki, I was worried to death," he muttered, pulling Loki back to look into his eyes. He felt that the now 'Hulked' Banner and the other Avengers would be able to handle the small amount of injured Frost Giants now and didn't feel the need to assist at the moment. He then realized that Loki still had his hands awkwardly cuffed behind him, so Tony used a laser in his suit to carefully unlatch them. They fell to the floor and Loki flung his arms around Tony.

"I was worried that you would think me a traitor and not come to rescue me," Loki said, his voice cracking.

"I was not going to leave you to fight these guys alone, and even if you had been working with them I wouldn't have given up on you. At this point I will never give up on you, no matter what you do."

"I love you, Anthony Stark," Loki whispered, clutching Tony tighter and staring deep into his eyes.

It took Tony by surprise at first. He had never heard those words grace Loki's lips before, even though he knew it to be true the other way around for him. Just hearing him say it, though, made his heart skip a beat and his eyes go blurry with unshed tears.

"Who's Anthony?" he mumbled, a teasing smile gracing his features.

Loki just frowned, but the frown didn't reach his eyes. "You, you idiotic genius."

"I know, Reindeer Games. I love you too, but I really hope that I didn't need to say it aloud for you to know that."

"I like hearing you say it," Loki murmured, leaning down and kissing Tony deeply; a kiss that made Tony's head spin and his knees want to buckle. They were not aware of the silence and lack of fighting that was going on around them, though none of the still Avengers wanted to interrupt their moment, as that had seemed to be happening a lot lately. What was it with people ruining their moments?

Loki pulled back, hissing slightly. "You know, Stark, I may be a god and all, but you are currently crushing me," he rasped, and Tony unwrapped his metal arms from around the thin god gingerly. They both turned to see that the Avengers were all turned with their backs to the couple and were examining the Frost Giant bodies that littered the floor.

"It's okay, guys, you can look now," Tony said cheerfully, and they all turned around, smiling as though nothing had happened. Banner was back to being Banner and Thor, Steve, and Clint had all come down from the upper floor. There were lots of either unconscious or dead Frost Giants littering the floor and the group looked like they had only suffered a few scrapes, and Natasha had a little bit of frostbite on her arm that would have to be treated. Altogether, though, they had very little injuries and did far better than Tony and Thor by themselves would have done.

"Alright, Fury, you can come in and deal with all of these Frost Giant bodies now," Tony said into his earpiece, grinning.

"I'll get my other men to do that," Fury grumbled, which made the small little group of misfits laugh, Tony deciding he was going to kill anyone before they were allowed to even touch _his_ God of Mischief.

**Thanks for reading and hopefully I will have the last chapter up by tomorrow or the next day. Please review!**


	25. Livin La Vida Loki

**I cannot even begin to describe how happy this fic has made me, with all of the amazing readers I have and all of my friends who have read this. I have never had a story get this many reviews and it is invigorating and motivating. I would like to thank every single one of my readers no matter who you are, and am very happy that I made it to the end. I hope it doesn't dissappoint!**

"It pains me to have to leave you all, but as king of Asgard I must be there to make sure affairs are going smoothly," Thor boomed to the other Avengers who were all standing in the helicarrier in the main computer room. Fury had just debriefed them, and they were all glad that he was done. They had seen quite a lot of Fury in the past few months and were rather tired of him. "I will make sure to keep Heimdall's Sight trained on you, Loki, so that if anything else bad happens I can come to the rescue!"

Loki smiled slightly. "Good to know, Thor. I thank you for coming to help me in such a dire situation."

Thor beamed at Loki and then turned to look at Tony. "You must get to work on getting me those nieces and nephews, Man of Iron," Thor said loudly, causing the others in the room to cough and sputter in surprise, laugh, or in Loki's case, glare at Thor with flushed cheeks.

"Yeah, uh, we'll let you know," Tony said in a voice that was higher-pitched than it usually was.

"Good! Loki, time to assist me in getting home!"

Loki nodded, still a little red in the face from the nieces and nephews comment, and took Thor's hand.

"Goodbye, my friends, and take care of yourselves. I will see you another day!" Thor boomed, and then he was gone.

"So, everyone," Tony began, clapping his hands together. "Let's say we do some partying or something together since you guys came all this way. Stay the night, I have extra rooms. You can leave tomorrow if you would like."

He got varying forms of assent from the others, if not from the allure of a Stark party, but for not wanting to leave right away and be able to rest in a nice place.

Tony was now sitting off to one side, nursing a glass of scotch, just watching. Loki was telling a story of his childhood to Clint and Bruce who were listening intently, occasionally laughing at something that Tony could not hear. They seemed to be just as mesmerized by Loki's storytelling as Tony had been, only interrupting to ask a question here and there, their eyes glazed over as they relived what Loki was describing in such vivid colors and feelings. Natasha and Steve were comparing battle strategies, using gestures to explain something that any outside person that wasn't an agent or a soldier would understand. Both of them had a certain light in their eyes that they only got when they were fighting or talking about something like this. Tony was happy just to be watching, and he knew that if he wanted to talk to any of them about anything that was bothering him he could; these people had become his colleagues out of necessity, but were now his friends out of choice. It made him happy to know that Loki was now accepted in this group and could talk and hold his own with them without Tony at his side. It seemed that he was now making fast friends with Bruce through the use of explanations of magic and science, and making friends with Clint through the use of a great battle story involving Thor in a dress.

Tony watched as Natasha paused in what she was talking about, glancing over at Loki, and then back at Steve, raising an eyebrow. Steve nodded, said something in response, and then Natasha leaned over to ask Loki something, her hands gesturing largely as she tried to explain what she wanted to know. Loki paused in his storytelling, seemed to ponder what she was asking, and then responded slowly, his brows crinkled as he thought about what he was saying. Both Steve and Natasha seemed satisfied with the answer, nodding and smiling at Loki, and then went back to their previous conversation.

Tony smiled to himself at this. Everyone seemed at ease, drinking and laughing and talking together, and he wished that they wouldn't all have to go back to their respected homes. If Tony didn't have Loki he would be stuck here in this house alone, resorting back to his playboy phase to trick himself out of his loneliness. Thinking back on that stage of his life now, he seemed so foolish, so self-centered. Loki may have thanked him for helping with the god's emotional problems, but Loki had no idea how much he had helped Tony along in his life, finding himself through the helping of the god.

Tony decided he had had enough of his solitude and strode over to Loki and put an arm around his shoulder.

"Are you telling them the story about Thor having to wear that wedding dress to get Mjolnir back from that giant fella?" Tony asked.

Loki nodded. "I really wish I would have gotten a picture of it," he said, smiling.

Tony chuckled and turned to Clint and Bruce. "I bet he didn't tell you that he had to dress up as a bridesmaid," Tony said, causing Loki to frown at him and Clint and Bruce to smile widely.

"You had to wear a dress too?" Clint asked, his face split wide with a grin.

"Yes, I did," Loki mumbled. Tony, Clint, and Bruce started laughing, and Loki reluctantly joined in, laughing at his own expense. "It would have been absolutely hilarious at the time had it not been such a dire situation," Loki chuckled.

Everyone had a little bit too much to drink, and Steve was beginning to get irritated, so they all decided that it would be a good idea to hit the hay lest they sleep too late and miss whatever flight they had to get home. "Pick whatever room on this floor you want for the night," Tony said to them, waving a hand, and then he pulled Loki up the stairs to the large room that they shared together.

"They like you, you know," Tony said to Loki as he changed into his pajamas.

Loki didn't answer, and Tony turned around to find that he was staring out the large glass wall at the ocean that stretched below. It was an amazing view, one that Tony had missed during his time in New York. He walked over to where Loki was standing and looped an arm around his waist. "Pretty, isn't it?" he said softly into the god's ear.

Loki nodded, and Tony turned his gaze from the ocean to the god standing next to him. There was a sea of feeling hiding behind those stormy green eyes, and Tony wanted to know everything that was there, wanted to swim in that sea, to lose himself in Loki. Loki caught Tony looking at him and his expression became more guarded.

"You can tell me anything, you know," Tony murmured.

"I know, Tony," Loki said softly, and then Tony found himself with an armful of Loki, who was sobbing gently and burying his face into the crook of Tony's neck.

Tony maneuvered so that they were sitting on the bed, and he began to stroke Loki's hair softly, something that he had learned that comforted and soothed the god. Tony sat in silence, knowing that that was what Loki wanted right now and held him until Loki settled down enough so that he was able to talk.

"These past few months," Loki began, his voice heavy, pausing and to take a deep breath. "Tony, sometimes I think that I will wake up and everything will have gone back to the way it was…before; when everyone was disappointed with me and I was so, so alone."

"You're not alone anymore, Loki," Tony said softly, his hand still gently smoothing the raven hair. "If I can help it, you will never, ever be alone."

Loki let out another soft sob and leaned back, pinning Tony with his bright green eyes that now shone with the tears that also shone in tracks down his face. "Stark, I don't know how I will ever begin to thank you for everything you have done for me, knowingly and unknowingly."

"But, Reindeer Games, you really think that this is completely one-sided?" Loki blinked, not knowing what Tony was talking about. "Loki, you have helped me in ways that I didn't know I needed help in. You brought me out of a horrible rut, helped me define myself in more ways than just a genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist."

Loki shook his head. "How could someone as broken as I was, might still be, help someone as sure as yourself?"

"The 'sure' on the outside just masked some horrible stuff that I like to keep hidden. Now, I'm not good at all of this 'mushy' stuff, but I can say that I no longer cling to the edge of that cliff for dear life. I can stand on the edge and look down in it with a smile on my face, knowing what is down there and just how I can get back up if I do manage to fall."

Loki sniffed a few times. "God, I probably look like a sniveling idiot right now, don't I?" he mumbled, wiping at his eyes with the side of his hand.

"Hey, if anyone went through as much as you have and didn't break down and cry a little bit I would think that they were the ones that had the issues," Tony said, taking Loki's wrists in his hands to stop him from wiping the tears away. Tony leaned forward and pressed his lips from Loki's jawline to his cheekbone and up to the corner of his eye, tasting the saltiness there from the shed tears.

He pulled back to look at Loki, who was still gazing at him with bright eyes. "You know, Loki-Dokey, if anyone ever tries to lay a hand on you again, including SHIELD and Fury, I am going to put on my suit and beat them to a pulp."

Loki chuckled. "For some reason I feel that Fury would kill you before you managed to kill him, even if you were in your suit. He would use some sort of odd eye-patch power."

They both laughed, and Tony slowly lay down on the bed, pulling Loki gently on top of him, keeping his arms wrapped firmly around the god's waist. Loki rested his head on Tony's chest, remembering the first time they had fallen asleep like this, drunk on the couch. They had come such a long way from that.

"Are you humming?" Loki asked, peering at Tony with narrowed eyes.

"Possibly," Tony said, grinning and continuing to hum.

"If you are going to continue with that irritating noise at least tell me what you are humming," Loki said.

"Upside, inside out, I'm livin' la vida Loki," Tony sang softly, causing Loki to arc an eyebrow.

"I'm assuming that is a parody of another song?"

"Yup."

"You are way too proud of yourself for that," Loki mumbled, not giving Tony a chance to answer as he pressed his lips tightly against Tony's.

"But it's true," Tony said when they broke apart. "I am living the Loki life!" Loki rolled his eyes.

"If you don't stop talking and kiss me you won't be living the Loki life tonight," Loki warned, only partly serious, and Tony decided that he should stop talking. He kissed Loki deeply and was utterly surprised when the god flipped onto his back, bringing Tony on top of him.

When Loki noticed Tony's surprise he gazed up at Tony, smiling slightly. "I trust you utterly and ineffably, Tony Stark." And that was enough, Tony supposed. Enough for him to know that he could trust the Loki with everything he had, enough for Tony to know that not only was he utterly Loki's, but that Loki was utterly _his._ And it didn't matter that Loki was a god, or if he happened to wake up completely human one day, because Tony would love him anyway, no matter what. It didn't matter that Loki happened to be a Frost Giant, because Loki didn't care that Tony used to be the 'Merchant of Death'. It didn't matter that they came from places so far away from each other that it took magic to travel to and fro, it didn't matter that the first time they met they were trying to kill each other. The green glow in Tony's chest was the one outward sign that they belonged together; that they were inseparable. Tony knew more about this god beneath him than he had ever known about anyone else, even Pepper, and he supposed that the god knew just as much about him. The god beneath him was a mystery to unravel, a limitless lifetime of adventures that he would discover, and it invigorated him just as much as it scared the crap out of him. But that was the way that Tony liked his life, what he thrived off of.

Tony found himself discovering more about the god beneath him in what wasn't their first time and wouldn't be their last. Tony knew for sure that he wanted to know as much about Loki as he could, and he was not rushed in any way to do so. He had as much time as he needed, and they were not in imminent danger right for once. Tony was going to take advantage of the absence of danger, because he knew that the Avengers would never be out of a job when it came to the safety of the Earth. Tony hoped with the last little shred of dignity that was left after all of the alcohol in his system and hearing the god moaning underneath of him that the walls and floors were as soundproof as the builders had promised…

**FIN**

**Well, that's that and I hope it lived up to your expectations. I stared at this for so long, wondering if it was the right way to close it, but decided that staring at it was not helping, so here it is. Like I said in the last author's note, I am going to be writing a new FrostIron a little bit later on, so keep an eye out for that if you are interested... THANKS AGAIN EVERYONE! It has been extremely fun and I can't wait to do it again. Wait... one last threat for old-times-sake? Hmmm... review or I will... sing Living La Vida Loki in an offkey tone? Yes... **


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